Set in the Syrian Revolution of 2011, this gripping YA novel – Katouh’s first – follows Salama Kassab, a young pharmacy student pressed into work as a doctor in the emergency department of Homs’ main hospital. Devastated by grief for her own family’s losses and the daily horrors that unfold around her, she is tormented internally by Khawf, a sinister illusion of a man who appears in shadows to remind her of the nightmares she’s witnessed, and those imagined atrocities meted out on the body of her brother, taken by the authorities and never seen since.

Her brother’s heavily pregnant wife is also her very best friend, Layla, and Salama promised her brother to do everything she could to protect his little family. But as the bombings and sniper attacks get more indiscriminate and food becomes scarce, does that mean finding a route for the two of them out of Syria, smuggled on an unsafe boat to a potentially safer life elsewhere in Europe? Or is this a true revolution, and a better life will rise from the rubble of their beloved city – so do they just need to hold on?

Before the uprising began in earnest, Salama’s mother was beginning the process of introducing her to a young man called Kenan with the hope of a marriage. A chance encounter throws these two young Syrians back together in the midst of the devastation, and entwines their lives even further when Salama asks Kenan – who has been uploading footage of events to the Internet to prove the authenticity of the rebels’ accounts – to start filming at the hospital, to show the world what is happening in Homs, just a few hours drive away from Damascus where people sip coffee on sun-drenched terraces. Salama looks at Kenan in the corridors of the stricken hospital and wonders about their might life, the future that was taken from them, where they’ve realised their dreams – where she is training as a botanical pharmacologist and Kenan is a star animator for Studio Ghibli. Now instead they hide from snipers and hoard individual packs of paracetamol for the very worst emergencies.

This is a hugely impactful book about choices, free will and the right to happiness: the difference between war and revolution, and the enormous repercussions of the cruelty meted out on everyday people by political conflict. One of the central themes in this at-times head-spinningly horrifying, impassioned book is to look for the colour, the moments of beauty and joy, even amongst the very darkest times – and to practise this no matter what you face. A humbling, un-put-downable read, and a timely reminder that, as poet Warsan Shire puts it: no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.

What. A. Book.
This book gripped me so hard byt I took my time with it as that's what I felt it deserved. It's heartbreaking, emotional, informative and hopeful and romantic all in one book. I loved the characters, loved the little surprises thrown in there and the outcome had me on tenterhooks, I had my tissues ready. An absolute must read for all, especially if, like me, you're not ovetly clued up on the war in Syria. Fantastic if devastating read.

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a stunning story of the realities, painful, sad, devastating - of war as depicted by a young Syrian woman. Her strength and resilience, intelligence and determination, and her love and devotion are beautiful and inspiring, the descriptions powerfully evocative, and the humanity and compassion are heartwarming. A must read.

Wow this is one powerful book - hold your calls and cancel your plans as you become entangled in the life of Salama, a first year pharmacy student who is thrust into the life and death world of a hospital in Homs in Syria during the revolution. The descriptions are harrowing but interspersed with an unfolding gentle love story. This book will stay with me for a long time and has ignited a curiosity of the history of Syria and its ongoing battles. Thank you Zoulfa Katouh and please keep writing more books - some of your writing is so poetical that it made me forget for a few pages the horror of the situation.

Definitely one of my favourite books I read this year. I still think of this book even after weeks I read it. Loved the characters, one of the best plot twists I didn't expect and thought of and the love story was cute and clean and I rooted for them. I feel like I learned so much about Syria and the life there.

Salama was a first year Pharmacology student in Homs when civil war broke out in Syria. She saw her mother killed by a bomb strike and her brother and father imprisoned. She is looking after her best friend and sister in law who is pregnant whilst also working at the hospital where she has now to perform duties as a surgeon due to a lack of hospital staff. One day she meets Kenan a boy not much older than her when his young sister is brought to the hospital. Kenan is looking after his young sister and brother as his parents have also been killed. Salama and Kenan realise they love each other but what hope do they have for a future in war torn Syria. Should they try and escape to Europe or stay and help others in their homeland which they love.

This is a beautifully written, heart wrenching story which brought to life the struggles people have when their country is at war. Particularly relevant now too with the war in Ukraine and Syria also still suffering.

I believe this is a debut novel so congratulations to the author and I hope it will be successful for her.

I’ve been sitting in front of a blank page for weeks now, because it’s simply impossible to put words to the sheer beauty and magic and heartbreak of this book. The fact that this is a debut novel is astounding – Zoulfa’s writing is just so lyrical and lush, and you can absolutely visualise every single scene (both beautiful and terrible).

The Syrian Revolution has been so deeply mis-conveyed and overshadowed. Socio-political turmoil over the last decade, both in Syria and in the West, compounded with Islamophobia and xenophobia and racism, have seen the original heart of the conflict forgotten about entirely, buried under proxy wars and subsumed into the War on Terror. Lemon Trees isn’t interested in any of that. This book is about Syrian people’s basic struggle for survival, and the brutality of civil war on the most personal, human level, and it is absolutely essential.

I knew this book would be heart-wrenching – every single review says it – but nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared me for the level of devastation (please check the content warnings!). It takes a lot for a book to make me cry, but this one had me tearing up within the first chapter, and by the last fifty pages I was weeping so hard I almost couldn’t read the words.

But, this book is also imbued with such fierce hope and resilience. The beauty of Syria, and love for her country and her people, are evident in every single word, and the determination that things can and will get better; that Syrian people will one day be free; and that joy can always be found in the small things, no matter the devastation; permeate the whole story.

Salama and Kenan both have my whole heart. Salama suffers from so much grief and guilt that your heart can’t help but break for her, while Kenan is the softest of soft boys, now responsible for his younger siblings after the death of his parents. Both are torn so deeply between loyalty to their family and their country – between staying to fight, vs fleeing to somewhere where (they hope) they will be safe – and I love how, through them, we get to see different perspectives on that conflict. Their romance is achingly sweet and a welcome respite from the horrors of everything else. I love how they’re able to support each other, and help each other to see the beauty that’s still there.

The Muslim representation is also perfection. The fact of the characters being Muslim isn’t really a focus of the story, but it is still evident in every thought, action and interaction they have, and I adore how it was woven in so naturally. In a story like this, it would be so easy for a more careless author to brush those aspects aside – especially when it comes to the romance – but Zoulfa has clearly made an effort to keep and highlight them, and I love her for that.

This book is without doubt a new all-time favourite, and I’m extremely aware that nothing about this review does it justice. I fully believe in its power to find people’s humanity and change their perspectives, and I’m so glad that it’s getting the attention it deserves. It is haunting and heartbreaking and beautiful and wonderful, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This book contains content warnings for: bombings, death, gore/medical trauma, shootings, hallucinations, injury and death of children and loved ones, panic attacks, PTSD, grief, starvation, violence, sexual assault.

I was sent a copy of As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh to read and review by NetGalley. This is a very worthy and I feel important book, giving as it does an inside view of the war in Syria but from a personal perspective. It is written in the first person with protagonist Salama telling her story and giving her innermost thoughts. I did feel that there was rather too much of her musings on her feelings of guilt and her ‘might be life’, I found that this got a little repetitive and tiresome. I also found that the casual dropping of scientific words for parts of the human anatomy, which I don’t really think even a qualified practitioner would be likely to do in their own thoughts, was unnecessary and very annoying. Having said that, it is still a good story which has a very important message to the world, opening the readers eyes to the horror and torment of the lives of ordinary people trapped within the ravages of war.

A desperately sad story of a young woman who falls in love while working in a hospital in Syria. Although it’s a YA fiction book it’s based on real life events too horrible to imagine.
Although it’s a hopeful book it’s a very difficult read, knowing that these things are happening in Syria right now.
Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for a review. I do hope it becomes a widely read success.

Did I love this book or did I love this book?
This was by far one of my top reads of the year, and I could tell it was going to be a heart breaker from the blurb.
But Lemon Trees didn't break my heart, no, it crushed it into tiny pieces and washed the pieces away in the river of my tears. Descriptive right? Not as descriptive as some of Zoulfa's paragraphs,which will have you fearful of the damage she's about to wreak on your soul.
Anyways, dramatics aside, go read this book right now! I can guarantee that you will not regret it, and if the promise of impending pain and heartbreak didn't lure you in, the hot imaginary guy should.

As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow is an eye-opening tale about the war in Syria. Both heart-breaking and hopeful, the book is packed full of loveable, intricate characters with very realistic desires and fears.
The characters are the heart and soul of the story but the plot is also filled with shocking plot twists and impactful moments.
This is a harrowing novel that should be mandatory reading for people across the world.

This was a beautiful but heart wrenching story. It really opens your eyes to the dreadful decisions people make the decision to fight for their country despite the hardships they may endure. A real page turner and certainly makes you realise why people leave their country for a better life. This was an excellent read.

This is one of the books of the year for sure. As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow follows Salama, an 18 year old who was studying to be a pharmacist before her country became a war zone and she had to become a surgeon with no training. She is torn between trying to flee Syria to Germany or staying behind in the country she loves to help treat people, even though there is huge risk to her life. I challenge everyone, particularly in the UK where people are so anti refugee, to read this book. You will cry your eyes out.

What a beautiful read. Set in war torn Syria, Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student living a normal life when war reached her town. Her brother is married to her best friend and when the rest of the family are murdered or captured, Salama and pregnant Layla must manage as best they can. Salama is carrying out operations, amputations and saving lives daily at the hospital. Only 18 she experiences trauma beyond her comprehension. Ever present is Khawf, a figure of her imagination but bringing to life the worst terrors she can imagine. Salama has promised her brother she will look after Layla and knows they need to flee but can she leave the suffering behind? Is the life of a refugee any easier - will she make it to Germany? She has difficult choices to make. I was not expecting the revelation toward the end. So much suffering, a grim picture of a reality we can't imagine, but so beautifully written it was hard to put down. #netgalley #AsLongAsTheLemonTreesGrow

The journey of anyone fleeing their homeland or surviving their homeland must be devastating. I have no idea what this must feel like of course never having done it. I was beside the characters in the book however and the writing is so immersive and inclusive that you feel you are going through it with her. Harrowing in places but you need to read this!

I read this book while on holiday sitting in sunshine and realised how lucky I am to live in a country which is safe from bombings etc. I am not sure what to say about this book. I found it happy sad and every emotion there is. This book tells us exactly what the people in Syria have been going through in their crisis and I found it so upsetting but a book everyone should read and take note of. Politicians first and foremost. The book is also about how two people meet, fall in love and make their lives in Syria is best they can but can they stay. The main characters in the book, Salama and Kenan, talked to my heart. I will always remember this book and these two characters. Salama wants to leave Syria by any means possible whereas Kenan wants to stay in his beloved country. He is cataloguing photos and interviews and posting them on youtube hoping to get the world to come together and deal with the dictatorship and hardship of the majority of Syrians . Salama is a pharmacist in a hospital and sees things no 18 year old girl should see, the hospital struggling for staff, drugs etc. Both are suffering with trauma and having found each they have to make decisions. Kenan has siblings and Salama has her sister-in-law. I am going to stop my review here as I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone else but everyone should read this and think very hard about the struggles some people are having. I think There are so many reasons to read this and remember it. What a great book made all the more better and interesting as it is a true reflection of life we are lucky not to live in but must remember always. Thank you for writing such a good book obviously based on so much truth. Every time I see a lemon it will remind me of this book with sadness I think

This was a stunning novel that I imagine will stay with each reader for a very long time. It was uncomfortable and heartfelt in all of the right places.

This book has left me wordless. I smiled with the characters it but I also cried with them. It was like a punch to the gut. I thought about the characters long after I had put it down. It is a definite must read

Set in troubled times in Syria. A poignant tale that will make you both cry and laugh. It is beautifully written. Everyone should read this important story.

This is an eye-opening book told by a superb storyteller about REAL events. We that have never experienced anything like the trauma of becoming and being a refugees are transported into Salma's world. For a brief time we are transported into this alien world of the Syrian war: the uncertainty, the insecurities, the trauma as together we are able to meet the hero's and heroines of this contemporary reality.
As you read, the storyteller makes you feel as if you are right there, living through these events. The vivid characterisation and the amazing detail that we are given help the reader transcend into the life of Salama’s. With hankies at the ready along with the escape button (by putting the book down) we gain a better insight into the Syrian world. What is it that leads someone to leave everything behind and get into a boat (not worthy of a city park pond) and sail out into the Mediterranean Sea knowing that the chances of reaching a destination is in the hands of God. Be under no illusion these are brave people who deserve our concern and our prayers.

This book is a must read for anyone who cares about humanity. Don't pass this opportunity for greater understanding and greater empathy- read this book today.
Thank you NetGalley and ARC for allowing me to read this book in exchange for this review.