To flee her homeland and everything she’s ever known for the chance of safety, or to stay behind and do her duty to a country under fire. That is the decision eighteen-year old Salama grapples with in Zoulfa Katouh’s novel, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow.
Before the war, Salama was a university student with dreams of becoming a pharmacist. Now, she volunteers as a surgeon at the same hospital she once hoped to work at, tending to the wounded, while struggling to keep herself and her pregnant sister-in-law Layla alive following her father and brother’s arrest and her mother’s death in a bombing. Haunted by Khawf, the morally gray manifestation of her fear and trauma, he urges her to take Layla and escape to Germany, a dangerous journey by boat that offers no promises of safety. But Salama hesitates to leave Syria behind, and when she meets Kenan and his siblings, the situation becomes even more desperate.
This novel is not an easy read. It doesn’t hold back in its depictions of war, nor is it apologetic for doing so. While Salama’s story is fictional, the novel depicts some real-life events and honors all the lives lost.
For similar titles, check out Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini, The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar, and A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Melissa Fleming. All titles are available through the Westmont Public Library in physical or digital format.
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