As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
on September 13, 2022
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / People & Places / United States / Middle Eastern & Arab American, Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Emigration & Immigration, Young Adult Fiction / War & Military
Pages: 432
Format: Audiobook, Hardcover
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Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her older brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe. But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all. Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.
This is a story that needs to be told, but it took me as an adult more than half of the novel to really engage with it. There are some imaginative features, but there are also several aspects which I found to be very irritating. The motifs in this novel are, in my opinion, rather overdone: the botanical references, the lemons, the colours, the personification of Salama’s fear and guilt…. I feel one or two key themes would have been better. I was also very bothered by the way Salama kept wandering out of the hospital during her shift for various reasons, without letting anyone know. Meanwhile, unrealistically, the poor (and only) doctor was ALWAYS there, day and night. He told Salama she needed to be kind to herself, but he really needed to take his own advice.
I rated this novel 3.5 stars. I was interested due to the reviews but was waiting and waiting for the twist and the story became repetitive to me. I struggled until the good part and then it was a very predictable ending for me. Nevertheless, reading the book has made me find out more about the tragedy of Syria and the plight of its people, and this seems to be one of the author’s main objectives- so I thank her for that.
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