As long as the lemon trees grow

As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Publishing Date: September 13, 2022

Book Info

Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life.

Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe.

But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.

Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.

Content Warning: on page death and sexual assault. As well as, descriptions of torture, child abuse and torture, PTSD, starvation, and general descriptions of the horror that comes with war.

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Author Interview

Q. Would you like to share any writing quirks you have? Do you like to listen to music while writing and studying?

I always listen to music while studying or writing. I have my book playlists that I listen to and they work as soundtracks for the scenes I’m writing. They’re a callback to the scenes I wrote when I listen to them again. I also need to have my iced coffee to get me in the ~authory mood~.

Q. Which genre or type of books are your comfort nook? Are there any favourites you generally recommend to people?

My comfort genre changes from time to time. Nowadays it’s romcoms. The ones I immensely enjoyed were YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER by Sarah Hogle and THE DEAD ROMANTICS by Ashley Poston.

Q. How was your experience writing As the lemon trees grow? Which character(s) did you connect with the most?

It was a long and tear-filled journey but cathartic at the same time. In a way, I feel connected to each character. Salama for her pharmacy background. Layla with her artistic soul. Kenan with his love for Studio Ghibli.

Q. When did do you come up with the idea of this book? Were there any other WIP(s) before this one?

In late 2017. I wanted to write about why Syrians choose to leave their home and risk their lives at sea to find safety elsewhere.

I had written a dystopian novel before it, which taught me how to write a book. It had many, many mistakes, one of them being that the first chapter was a fifty Word Document pages of pure monologuing!

Q. Would you like to share any deleted scenes from the book? Was there anything you wanted to include in the final script of the book but couldn’t do so?

I’d written a scene where Salama hallucinates her brother and Kenan and her sitting together in a garden, and her brother is acting protective over his younger sister while making jokes. It was a cute scene that I really enjoyed writing.

Q. How are you doing these days? Is there any comforting activity you are engaging in?

Doing well, thank you! I’m walking more which is making my Apple Watch very happy and listening to a lot of audiobooks which is making my Goodreads challenge very happy.

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Author Info

Zoulfa Katouh is the only person in her family who can’t roll her tongue, but that’s okay because she writes characters who can do so. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Drug Sciences. She is trilingual in English, Arabic and German. Zoulfa currently resides in Switzerland where she finds inspiration in the Studio Ghibli picturesque scenery.

Ever since her Mama gave her a copy of Anne of Green Gables when she was eight years old, she discovered the beauty of books. Soon enough she was sneaking books under her school desk to read while teachers went on about Math and Physics. Her imagination grew, and one day, she had the courage to pen down the stories that roam her mind. And she never stopped!

Her speculative contemporary YA debut AS LONG AS THE LEMON TREES GROW comes out September 13th by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and September 15th by Bloomsbury Kids & YA UK, making her the first Syrian YA author to be published in the US and UK.

She is represented by the warrior queen Alexandra Levick at Writers House.

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