Book Review: As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
With themes of grief, war, mental health, and always trying to look for the colors in life, I can’t wait to review As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow for you guys. If you like tackling difficult subjects in your reading and challenging yourself to be a better human, this book is for you.
Book Information
Salama knows what pain feels like. She’s lost her mother. Her brother and father. She’s lost her home. Moving forward in Homs with the war surrounding her makes her feel the grief stronger than ever before. It doesn’t help that she’s been seeing a man who’s not really there, reminding her of all her shortcomings, reminding her of her fear. Salama is torn between staying and helping her people in her country as she works in the hospital to heal the sick and wounded, or leaving with her pregnant best friend to find a better life. She doesn’t want to abandon her people, her home, but staying in Syria has become more dangerous than ever. Staying just might get her, and those she loves, killed.
Review | Heidi Dischler
This was a beautiful novel filled with so many different emotions and so many different lessons for people to learn. I absolutely love novels like this. I love learning and becoming more sympathetic towards those who lead different lives than I do. Salama and the Syrian war definitely gave me sympathy.
The Syrian war has always been so far from my mind. I know that there are horrible things happening there. I knew that before reading this novel. I knew that the Middle East is one of the worst for crimes against women. I didn’t know the extent of the violence, though, and reading it from the perspective of someone who loves Syria with her whole heart really broke my own. What really got to me, though, were the deep themes of hope.
Hope was often disguised as colors in this novel. As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow had Salama looking for colors, looking for the beauty, even among all of the destruction, pain, and fear. The hope that was covering almost every scene was overwhelmingly powerful. Someone always has hope to lift the others up and that really made my heart happy. I can’t imagine keeping faith and hope after so much tragedy, so seeing it in this novel made me want to cry for their strength.
Overall, the writing was gorgeous. The plot was amazing. Their were twists throughout the novel that surprised me. I loved everything about Salama’s journey and I rooted for her the entire way. If you want a novel to give you hope, to teach you pain, to make you gain sympathy for those who have harder lives than you can even fathom, I highly suggest this novel. We have so much to learn as human beings on this earth, and the first step to learning what we need to know is finding compassion for others.
Source: Personal Copy
