As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

Very violent but gut-wrenching story of a girl in the midst of the Syrian civil war. Recommended for teens and young adults.

To look out for:

Islamic values: Two Muslim girls talk about boys and makeup. In order to secure a way out of Syria, a girl threatens the boatman that she will properly treat his dying daughter if he does not allow her and her family to escape. Her action is driven by fear, and not by cruelty, and she struggles with her conscience after committing making such a threat. A soldier seemingly threatens to rape a girl, but he is attacked before doing so.

Note: the political view of the author is explicitly anti-Assad and pro the Free Syrian Army. 

Romance: The main character meets the boy she was supposed to marry before the war, and they admit feelings for one another and marry. There are no inappropriate discussions or scenes.

Note: some editions contain a side story at the end which involves less-discrete romantic descriptions

Profanity: Infrequent use of swear words including ‘s–t”.

Violence: Warning: very violent – The main character is a doctor/surgeon during the war. Graphic descriptions of wounded children, people shot, bombed, and killed. A doctor has to perform surgeries without anesthesia. The main character has PTSD and envisions/almost hallucinates a man who is the physical form of all the fears that haunt her. This is somewhat disturbing, but she eventually gets the better of her fears. In one disturbing scene, soldiers invade the hospital and threaten to kill and/or rape several people.

SPOILER ALERT: The girl’s pregnant sister-in-law dies, but PTSD causes the girl to believe that she still exists (she finds out the truth later in the book).