The Lemon Tree

De: Sandy Tolan

Narrado por: Sandy Tolan

The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people - one Israeli, one Palestinian - that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East. In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly 20 years earlier. One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house had been converted into a school. But the third, Bashir Al-Khairi, was met at the door by a young woman called Dalia, who invited them in. This act of faith in the face of many years of animosity is the starting point for a true story of a remarkable relationship between two families, one Arab, one Jewish, amid the fraught modern history of the region. In his childhood home, in the lemon tree his father planted in the backyard, Bashir sees dispossession and occupation; Dalia, who arrived as an infant in 1948 with her family from Bulgaria, sees hope for a people devastated by the Holocaust. As both are swept up in the fates of their people, and Bashir is jailed for his alleged part in a supermarket bombing, the friends do not speak for years. They finally reconcile and convert the house in Ramle into a day-care centre for Arab children of Israel, and a center for dialogue between Arabs and Jews. Now the dialogue they started seems more threatened than ever; the lemon tree died in 1998, and Bashir was jailed again, without charge. The Lemon Tree grew out of a 43-minute radio documentary that Sandy Tolan produced for Fresh Air. With this audiobook, he pursues the story into the homes and histories of the two families at its center, and up to the present day. Their stories form a personal microcosm of the last 70 years of Israeli-Palestinian history. In a region that seems ever more divided, The Lemon Tree is a reminder of all that is at stake, and of all that is still possible.

©2006 Sandy Tolan (P)2013 Audible Inc.

A very small piece of a huge picture.

The story is well written and colorfully told but it's perspective lacks the spiritual and much longer history that lies beyond what is told here. Neither of the two main characters here are happy and at peace. Furthermore they cannot yet see a solution to their dilemma.

Ironic Beauty in Dissonance

Likes:
1. The telling was descriptive and seemingly even-handed as compared / contrasted with an attempt to persuade.
2. The self-and-(attempt-at)-other-aware peace / tension associated with the friendship of the protagonists: Dhalia and Bashear.
3. Beauty which may be found in as-yet unresolved dissonance; it is relevant to so much I observe around me.
4. The symbol of the lemon and lemon tree.

Dislikes:
None

Rich beautiful honest

this was a clear open equal account of a ongoing dispute that hopefully comes to a peaceful end soon.

A real life account that reads like a novel.

Tolan reduces the essence of the Jewish -Palestinian conflict to it lowest common denominator -- personal longing for rootednes. He demonstrates that there is no short or easy route to peace in the Middle East, but it is possible through continual dialogue pressing to see the other as your brother, sister.

History Book

I was hoping for the history to be told through the characters. Only a very small amount of the book is the story of the characters, the rest is a history book!

Mediocre narration

Tolan would not have been my first choice for narrator. Compared with other audio books that use professional actors to narrate, Tolan's narration is flat and whiny. However, the story is still engaging and worth listening to either way.

Eye opening

I have always wondered about the origins of the conflict in Israel. My eyes have been opened. Loved it!

an excellent explanation

an excellent explanation as to how the Middle East became such a complicated and difficult problem to solve. I highly recommend it.

Interesting history

I love the title & the complete story around this house & how the people all came to know each other. Agree to disagree

Great read

This book was hugely interesting lots of details. I really liked being able to follow the families through those troubled times.