Kahtouh, Zoulfa. As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow. Fiction. Little, Brown, 09/2022. 416pp. $18.99. 978-0-316-35137-9. GRADES 9 – 12. OUTSTANDING.
Her native city of Homs is crumbling under bombings during the Syrian revolution, and eighteen-year-old pharmacy student Salama has already lost her father and brother to prison, her mother to a bombing, and every chance of a normal life to a bloody war. Accompanied by the dark presence of Kahwf (Arabic for fear) as a personification of her loss, Salama attempts to support her pregnant sister-in-law and volunteer at a resource-starved hospital as hundreds of mutilated people struggle to live through the chaos. When she finds nineteen-year-old Kenan and his younger siblings and makes plans for a terrible and risky escape from Syria, Salama glimpses a possible future even as the world around her literally burns. Lyrically written, redemptive, and powerful, this novel confronts loss and personal growth, and truly highlights the insanity of trying to exist in the middle of a bloody conflict.
Lesley Mandros Bell—Unaffiliated