Black Dog of Fate is written in first person perspective. This is vital to the story, in that the novel is about Peter Balakian's journey to find his Armenian roots and to discover the history of his ancestors. While the story is, at times, told in the third person as other individuals' testimonies about the genocide are discussed, the main flow of the novel is first person, whether the narrator is Peter, or other members of his family, or other eye witnesses.