Book: As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
Author: Zoulfa Katouh
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Completed this for the Popsugar Reading Challenge Prompt #38 (a book with any type of fruit on the cover or in the title) and the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge Prompt #32 (Publisher starting with the letter “B” – Bloomsbury)
The year before the revolution, Salama’s best friend Layla falls in love with, and marries her brother.
But before Salama gets a chance to explore her possible happily-ever-after, the revolution begins, plunging their lives into chaos.
Layla and her unborn child are all she has left. Then there’s Khwaf- a companion she has hallucinated who urges Salama to leave Syria.
She is torn between wanting to help those suffering around her, and seeking safety for Layla and the baby.
And then she meets green-eyed Kenan, who wants to stay and risk his life for his country. And this changes everything.
It took me a lot longer than it should have to realise this is young adult, which explains a LOT.
The story is heartbreaking in the suffering it shows – and the difficulties of ethics when you’re backed into a corner.
We all like to think we would be heroes in such contexts but when it comes to sacrificing those we love for the greater good, what would we actually do?
It describes a place once beautiful now dark and devoid of hope.
It shows us not only the physical impact of wars – the broken bodies, starvation, and pain – but also the mental and emotional impact such trauma has on our minds.
The love story is a bit over the top but makes sense for a young adult audience. It also explains why the romance was so G-rated.
That said I think this is an important book because it reminds those of us living in relatively peaceful circumstances, to be thankful for what we have, and to help in any small way we can.
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