We held our heads high and planted lemon trees in acts of defiance, praying that when they came for us, it'd be a bullet to the head.' A Canadian national with Syrian parents, Katouh split her childhood between Dubai and Switzerland, where she found that she was on the receiving end of a lot of questions about Syria and the war. She felt duty-bound to serve her fellow Syrians, even if it was from a distance. And I would like to state that, out of all this story, the conclusion goes like this: you may take the Syrians out of Syria, but you will never take Syria out of the Syrians' hearts. Even though everything written in the book has been documented and reported on the news and the internet for more than ten years, not a lot of people know what's going on. Which is why I wanted to make it into a story. In the end, that's what human life is; stories. Ahead of its September 13 release, read an excerpt of the first chapter from As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow below.

love how she taught salama that there is more to life than fear. that hope and faith is enough to have happiness and love. love how she always reminded her that her life is also important and that she doesn't have to stop living and loving.As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a beautiful and aesthetic book starting from the melodicity of the title to the visual impact of that stunning cover to the love stories happening inside the book. Yes, stories. Plural. Because there isn't only a boy and a girl falling in love. But I will get to that later.

With that being said, As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow follows Salama Kassab, who is studying to be a Pharmacist when the Syrian Revolution breaks out. Right before her eyes she loses her family, her home, and her freedom. Within days, she’s goes from a first-year pharmacy student to a surgeon as she volunteers at a hospital in Homs. She treats the men, women, and children—suffering from all forms of atrocities inflicted on them by their government. The book is aimed at teenagers and delves into the trauma caused to civilians as a result of war (MEE/Nadda Osman) And it is one! All the characters in this book love their given and chosen families fearlessly and this is a powerful aspect of this book.Zoulfa does an incredible job at showing us the struggle of the Syrian people in our two beautiful main characters Salama and Kenan(who I love so so much). But she does an even better job at showing us the perseverance of human kind. Whether it’s through relying on religion or our country or each other, the moments of happiness in this book made me smile despite the tears streaming down my face (I cried at least 12 times during this book).

For Katouh, writing the book was not an easy process. "The very first draft was 130,000 words of pure pain,” she says. "I wrote it at a time when I had no hope." I really don't know if you get what I mean but I've never read historical fiction with Muslim rep before and it's just so powerful we don't have to stop living because we might die. anyone might die at any given moment, anywhere in the world. we're not an exception. we just see death more regularly than they do. Unless you count Khawf. But he's a hallucination; a symptom of the horrors she's seen. Every day he urges Salama to leave. Every day she refuses. I’m speechless. It was absolutely amazing. I finally found a book that I could proudly recommend to everyone if they asked me for a book recommendation. This is this type of story which will stay with you for a long time, and I simply think that everyone should read it.Lewat narasinya yang ditulis dengan indah dan penuh emosi, Katouh melalui Salama berusaha menyampaikan realisme situasi konflik Suriah secara langsung tanpa ada bumbu pemanis sedikit pun. Katouh tanpa ragu-ragu menggambarkan situasi Salama berpacu dengan waktu untuk menyelamatkan nyawa ratusan pasien dengan keadaan terburuknya.