The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

Sandy Tolan

Dec 2008 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this ebook

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

“Extraordinary ... A sweeping history of the Palestinian-Israeli conundrum ... Highly readable and evocative.” – The Washington Post

The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people, one Israeli and one Palestinian, that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East – with an updated afterword by the author.

In 1967, Bashir Khairi, a twenty-five-year-old Palestinian, journeyed to Israel with the goal of seeing the beloved stone house with the lemon tree behind it that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family left Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next half century in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, demonstrating that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and transformation.

Ratings and reviews

Uses the true story of two families, one Israeli and one Palestinian as a metaphor of the past present and possible future for the two peoples. I learned so much about the history of both people and was deeply moved by both sides. I see this as not only one of the few histories that could fascinate while teaching so much but also one that presented both views side by side capturing my heart with both.

Simply phenomenal! I'm a Zionist myself but the story really opens you up to see the multi-dimensional complexity of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. The chemistry between the intimacy of the two families on both ends of the struggle and clear historical events, intertwine for an amazing, interesting,and thought-provoking read.

Well written and lyrically told. I felt sympathy for the plight of both families that were highlighted. I'd recommend this as a good primer to anyone who isn't well-versed in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

About the author

Sandy Tolan is the author of Me & Hank and Children of the Stone. As cofounder of Homelands Productions, Tolan has produced dozens of radio documentaries for NPR and PRI. He has also written for more than forty magazines and newspapers. His work has won numerous awards, and he was a 1993 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and an I. F. Stone Fellow at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He is an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.