A beautifully written story with very harrowing themes. Powerful, moving and heartbreaking - a really compelling page turner!

Eighteen-year-old Salama lives in Syria, she is using her medical knowledge to work in a hospital as a doctor.
Buildings are being blown up all around her and her family are all dead or have disappeared
She meets up with an old familiar face whom she was once almost set to marry.
They are faced with the reality of staying put or paying smugglers to escape in an overcrowded boat to another country.
Throughout the book Salama is seeing her absent brother and having discussions with him.
I found this part of the story annoying.
It is hard to imagine this went on in Syria, but it still is, and this book shows how it feels to lose family and possessions and have a choice to make of leaving your home behind..

This really wasn't what I was expecting but I was surprised by how the story held my attention. I wouldn't really class this as fantasy but more of mental illness and the affects of war/trauma. As long as the lemon tree grows really made me empathise more with refugees in our current global situation (not that i didn't already) and really brought light to the subject in my eyes. Quite an emotional read too. 3.5⭐️

This book is absolutely incredible. Incredible words, incredible characters, incredible everything. I finished this book a while ago and I’m still thinking of it.
Salama is the main character who is a pharmacist (but having to act as a doctor) in a hospital in Syria. Salama lives with her sister in law (no spoilers but this isn’t quite what it seems) after losing her family to the war. Everyday she sets off to work not knowing if she will return. She decides to attempt to find freedom and manages to secure a place on a boat fleeing the country. Will she make it? Does she find love or will she be alone?
Zoulfa writes perfectly. I felt every emotion, smelt the lemons and saw everything she described. This book is so moving. You will laugh and cry. I’ve heard about the plight in Syria but to read it at this extend is a sobering wake up call. The story she tells is of strength, determination, sadness, grief, love and fear. She manages to emphasise the struggle of the people but also the empowerment and perseverance of human kind.
This book will stay with me forever. I read a digital copy but I have ordered the book so I can enjoy it over and over again. I can’t recommend it enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was a heart-rending and thought-provoking story that must reflect the reality of so many Syrian refugees around the world. Katouh has a strong authorial voice and Salama is an engaging protagonist. I didn't see the twist coming, and would recommend tissues for the last 100 pages or so of this novel! I'll definitely look out for future works by this author.

A beautiful story that will stay with me for a while.

This book was different from what I expected. I went into it blindly -- having completely forgotten what the blurb was when I first requested it.

A bittersweet story of Syrian refugees from Homs, considering whether they should leave their country or stay and fight. I thought it was very thoughtfully done.

A debut novel from a new one-to-watch author.

Salama was supposed to be studying to be a pharmacist. Instead she has to act as doctor in the understaffed hospital as the stream of wounded continues. The civil war hasn’t just taken her dreams, but her parents and brother too. Her only family left is her pregnant sister-in-law and best friend, Layla. Salama is plagued by an hallucination that takes the form of Khawf, a deeply unpleasant, demanding man, the product of PTSD and a head injury. With the birth of Layla’s child looming, they plan to escape Syria via the Mediterranean, but Salama is torn between Layla’s safety and her desire to help the victims of the war. Then she meets Kenan, the boy she was supposed to marry before the Revolution, and her plans are thrown into disarray.

Katouh broke my heart into a thousand tiny pieces then slowly put it back together again. Her love for Syria permeates every word; the prose is lyrical and atmospheric and compelling. Throughout the devastating, horrifying situation there are moments of beauty and hope: Salama’s relationship with Layla, her devotion to the patients, her burgeoning romance with Kenan.

There were times when Salama’s internal monologue became repetitive, but I didn’t mind because it was so indicative of her trauma and the way she clings to daydreams of what might have been. Honestly a lot of the criticism I’ve seen in lower-starred reviews seems to come from ignorance, but in the context of her trauma and loss it all felt very real to me.

A ‘youth novel’ which focussed on romance over the gravity of the situation on a few occasions. Snatches of lovely prose juxtaposed with puerile dialogue. A heroine I didn’t like and a suitor just too perfect. And that reveal towards the end? Eurgh. A step too far for me.

Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. Her family were alive and she was on her way to her dream career. However, this all changed very quickly. As a pharmacy student Salama was seen to have enough medical training to provide assistance as a nurse in the hospital. Overnight she went from learning about medicine in her first year of university, to stitching up the wounded and holding the hands of children as they passed.

Salama lost her family early in the war and is plagued by hallucinations since. She is desperate to escape with her sister in law. But even in a horrible situation happiness and love can still be discovered. When Salama meets Kenan her plans to leave get thrown into disarray. Kenan feels so passionately about staying to fight for his country and Salama feels passionately about him.

This book was absolutely heart breaking. She could tell that Katouh absolutely wrote from the heart, with her their love for their country that is at breaking point. We see a story of loss and heartbreak but also one of hope for a better future. I can't recommend this book enough, it was beautiful.

I thought that As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow was a beautifully written book, absolutely one of the best I've read this year. It was heart wrenching with some shocking twists and real page turning chapters that kept me reading well past when I should have been asleep. It also had fantastic main characters and a touching story there.

But perhaps most importantly, it did what the author set out too - educated to the reality of the conflict in Syria.

A fantastic book.

I absolutely loved this book. The descriptions of Syria in the midst of war, the lengths people have to go to to survive, the brutality, but also the hope that can been found in the smallest of things made this book brilliant. I will be recommending it to everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley for this copy. This is a really good book, kept me entertained throughout and I would thoroughly recommend to all.

A novel, but I would imagine a heartbreaking amalgam of numerous true stories. A trainee pharmacist having to work as a doctor during the war in Syria due to a lack of trained staff. A detailed account of the horrors she witness, and the trauma of PTSD. Everyone does what they have to to survive.. exceptionally well written, and important story to tell

An excellent read, insightful and intelligent, as well as educational.

I have ordered several copies for my library and will promote and recommend this one to students and staff alike.

I can never say, I enjoy reading these type of stories. I choose them very carefully. 'As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow' recalls the story of a young pharmacy student Salama who was living in Homs, Syria, when war broke out.. The cover of the book and the title peaked my interest, more than most books have done. I was not disappointed.
Salama, the protagonist in the story was traumatised by the events of the war. Her fight for survival was unimaginable. Early in the book we met Khawf, who is Salama's conscience and guide. She battles with him throughout. Stripped of most of her family by the war, Salama has to find her own way. Salama eventually realises things are not really as they are and in her survival she has to adopt different tactics. The book, is clearly and beautifully written, it takes you on Salama's journey. It is moving and perhaps upsetting but I am so pleased I have read this and recommended it to others.

Such a beautiful book! I absolutely loved it, I’ll be recommending it to everyone! It was easy to get into and easy to follow too. It has an important message and story which is hard to read at times (it’s just a very sad situation) but it has been presented in a really beautiful way.

This book was so so so good, it made me cry, laugh, scream… and if a book makes me do all those three things like this book, it’s a damn good book! I can’t wait to read more from this author!

I went into this read expecting tears and that’s exactly what I got. As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow depicts the life of Salama, a young girl living through the war in Syria who consistently fights to defend her country and protect her fellow people despite having lost her family to the tragedy of war. Salama suffers from a case of PTSD that causes hallucinations, specifically of one person whose purpose is to remind her of everything she has to lose if she doesn’t flee. Throughout the book Salama fights these suppressed thoughts represented by her hallucinations of Khawf, translating to fear in English - a play on words I really liked. This story highlights the never-ending fear of war victims in Middle Wast countries, where nobody bats an eyelash at the strikes from the US. Salama is written as a character who is torn between fighting for her country and healing her people, or protecting the only family she has left- her sister-in-law. Her thoughts, feelings and actions are so representative of survivors and their guilt, and her experiences as a pharmacist-turned-doctor to heal those injured by attacks touch your heart with the variety of people and tragedies they undergo. The lack of a 5th star- at times, the writing felt immature, and sometimes it lacked enough emotion, or felt too rushed. It does make sense considering it is a YA book, narrated through the perspective of an 18-year-old girl, so I guess it was on me for expecting a more mature, descriptive writing that tears through your soul. (Spoilers ahead) - I think the ending may not satisfy many people. In a book like this, the grief-stricken protagonist who has lost everyone along with all hope, typically ends in tragedy, in hopes for the most realistic representation of what these current wars look like. I was expecting that too. However, I enjoyed the fact that this story inspires some hope for escaping war and finding safety, if not freedom, rather than being doomed to death, despite the fact that this is not where war victims end up in current day. It felt fitting for a YA book to have a happy ending rather than a tragic death, so I was satisfied in the end. The only thing I will say is that this book is not meant to be an accurate representation of real life victims in Syria. If it is read with that mindset, you’ll be disappointed, as I was when I started reading it. If instead, you read it with the view that it is a tale about them, you’ll be more satisfied with the glammed-up version where things work out and they live happily ever after, as I was once I changed my perspective. Overall, I enjoyed it thoroughly and would definitely recommend it to others who are looking to be eased into more mature reads about real tragedies.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for this ARC.

Beautiful read, important subject matter and stunning writing

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access this book in exchange for my feedback.

I have already been promoting this in our libraries. Both harrowing and beautiful to read, this brings the reader face to face with the reality of a war we think we know about but in truth cannot imagine. I loved Salama as a character, and through her you gain an insight into the conflicts of those caught up in such horror. Do you stay and do what you can, or do you get out and try to save something for yourself? If you do try to leave, where do you go? Despite the very real horrors here, there is also hope. It is without doubt a powerful story and I found it a compelling read. Fantastic!