THIS. BOOK.
Hi everyone!
Today I'm thrilled (out of my mind, really) to share with you an interview with the one and only, Zoulfa Katouh. Her debut, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, is a deeply moving and beautiful story of a people's fight against violence and occupation. A story that gives you a glimpse of the horrors that thousands go through daily with seemingly no way out.
With a fascinating fantastical twist added to it, where the physical manifestation of a young girl's fear, Khauf, haunts her as she tried her best to survive and stand by her people.
Check out other amazing posts in this Tour with the link below!
Book Info
Release date- 13 September 2022
Publisher- Little Brown Books
Genre- YA Fantasy, Historical, Magical Realism
Trigger Warnings- sexual assault (on-page), parental deaths (on-page), murder, war and torture, child abuse and torture, starvation, PTSD, grief
Rep- Muslim rep, Syrian rep.
Synopsis
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 teenage 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, 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.
Author Interview
Question- How did you come up with the idea for the book?
Zoulfa- I wanted to write a story about why people leave their country for another place when I realized people in Europe and the West don’t really know what’s going on in Syria.
"If you're meant to be in Munich, you will be, even if the whole military rips this place apart. And if you're not, not even a private plane landing in the middle of Freedom Square to whisk you away will do that."
Question- Did you pull from your own experiences? And was it hard or easy putting them in words in the book?
Zoulfa- I wrote about the Syria I saw when I was younger and visited during the summer. That is seen through Salama’s memories. It was nostalgic and made me miss the Syria I used to know.
Question- How did you go about adding speculative elements to the story with so much going on on the real-world side of it, without taking away interest from either of those elements?
Zoulfa- It’s a balance with a blurred line. I wanted to intermix the speculative with the reality because sometimes reality is stranger than fiction, as we know. I tried to make sure there was equal weight in both the speculative and the real sides to hook the reader’s interest.
"Auntie-don't cry-when I go to heaven-I'll tell God-everything,"
Question- The character of Salaama is such an incredibly strong figure. Was there a particular inspiration for her?
Zoulfa- She was inspired by the White Helmets, a volunteer group who risk their lives to save the civilians in Syria, and Rouzan al-Najjar, the 20-year-old Palestinian medic who was intentionally shot by the IDF while she was doing her job and nursing protesters.
Question- What was your last five-star read?
Zoulfa- Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
"We fight while we're still here, Salama because this is our country."
About the Author
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 Ghiblipicturesque 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 Levickat Writers House.
Author Links- Website, Twitter, Instagram
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