Review: As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow


The alluring title and intricate cover design of this novel provides instant grab but it’s the immediate saturation of raw authentic atmosphere that really pulls you into Salama’s story. Debut author Zoulfa Katouh pours her heart and soul into Salama but does so with enough measured restraint and humour to ensure this exposé of Syria’s present day atrocities appeals not only to adult readers but also its intended YA audience. And, it’s an allure that lingers all the way to the heart touching end.

Salama is a young Syrian girl living in Homs, a city located on the Orontes River in western Syria. A city razed to the ground by Syria’s ugly ongoing Civil war. She lives amongst the destruction surviving on less than nothing, enduring nerves more frayed than the fabric of any remaining normality. Every ounce of energy is directed into maintaining the welfare of others, namely those brought into the local hospital in which she works to be cobbled back together again. She mends, stitches, soothes and cries her way through day after day of human carnage. And she’s not even qualified to do so.

Merely months into studies for her dream vocation as a pharmacist, Salama is forced to assume the role as assistant emergency surgeon thanks to the ever decreasing supply of local qualified care givers. It’s a role that simultaneously repulses her yet feeds her strong desire to ‘do something’, to help her people, especially the innocents.

To compound the horror of her situation is the terminal grief that haunts Salama. She, like thousands of those around her, has lost close family members in what feels like a surreal blink of an eye. The heartache however lingers, metastasising into Khawf who plagues Salama’s thoughts and is determined to direct her actions. I was equally disturbed and intrigued by this mental antagonist; a supreme metaphoric entity who is easy to despise and feel revolt for yet in some ways is Salama’s – our – ultimate saviour.

After connecting with a boy named, Kenan, Salama’s reality shifts again. She battles with the inherent obligations she feels towards her motherland and the need to fulfil a promise to her incarcerated brother to protect her sister-in-law and their unborn child from unavoidable oblivion. It’s a decision that weighs as heavy as a concrete bunker on her but also on Kenan whose responsibility for the welfare of his younger siblings and the hunger to remain, fight and stand strong against the military proves to be a sticking point between he and Salama. Theirs is an instant attraction made all the more tenuous by their perilous existence. Yet despite the incomprehensible trauma of their lives, Salama’s modern sassy wit and deeply buried desired to live, love and grow just like the delicate herbs and flowers she adores pulsates and bolsters until the fraught conclusion.

The bitter realities of war and genocide aren’t exactly buffed down by Katouh, rather they are artfully and honestly balanced. The result is a tale that mutually entertains, shocks and educates. At times it resounds with a Titanic (the film version) tragic inevitability. But it mostly fills your spirit with a wondrous lemony light – the colour of hope.

I read As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow for our ‘adult’ book club but proclaim it as recommended reading for anyone over the age of 14. View it as an insight into a history, current affairs or simply as the liberating love story that it is.


Title: As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow
Author: Zoulfa Katouh
Publisher: Bloomsbury, $16.99
Publication Date: September 2022
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781626648518
For ages: 14+
Type: Young Adult Fiction

Buy the Book: Boomerang Books, Bloomsbury

 

 

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