Citation: Katouh, Z. (2022). As long as lemon trees grow. Brown Books for Young Readers.
Content Warning: This novel deals with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, war (murder, violence), and grief.
Multi-award winning author Zoulfa Katouh’s first novel traces the effects of first love, navigating life during war, and death and imprisonment of family members.
The book follows a young woman named Salama in the year following the 2011 Arab Spring and Syrian Revolution as she provides medical services to those harmed in the war. Salama’s immediate family have either been killed during war or imprisoned. Salama has PTSD, Kenan Aljendi as a possible love interest, and Khawf as a manifested hallucination that follows Salama due to her PTSD. This is a book full of heartbreak like no other, but also love, strength, and resilience that cannot be compared. (Be ready to cry). (Ugly cry).
Check out our other review of As Long as The Lemon Trees Grow here.