As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow - Nov 2023

[Lynn, Moderator]

Voted by members for YA additional read



As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big 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.

[Bonnie]

I loved this book so much I had to start it early and then I read it as my only read (I usually have several going at a time) until I finished. Looking forward to the discussions, but meanwhile I am curious- before picking up this book/starting to read it- did any of you know of remember the news about the Syrian Revolution/war just a decade ago?

[Lynn, Moderator]

Oof, I had the opposite reaction I'm afraid. I did not like this book.

The same conversation and plot were repeated over and over again for so much of the book. There was very little plot line on the actual Syrian conflict and a huge part on the romance and I was just bored.

[Bonnie]

Lynn wrote: "Oof, I had the opposite reaction I'm afraid. I did not like this book.

The same conversation and plot were repeated over and over again for so much of the book. There was very little plot line on..."

I just saw that as YA- plus I doubt a teenager in
Syria would know much about what was really going on outside her town. It was maybe timing, too, with what is happening around the world, I am extra interested in young people living in horrible times.

[Lea]

I liked the book also. Having briefly encountered Syrian refugees in Germany, I thought the author did a nice job of explaining the difficult decisions faced by the refugees, without adding in a lot of extra unnecessary plot lines to convolute the message. For me, I thought the book focused on that one issue in depth (staying in Syria in the middle of a revolution or leaving Syria) as opposed to trying to portray ten important issues in a more superficial way.

However, I did think that the author did a lot more of "tell" rather than just "show" the reader and there was a lot of teenage angst that kept me from rating the book higher. I'd read more by this author.