The Lemon Tree

Written by Sandy Tolan

A refugee and a student form an unlikely bond over a shared home amid conflict.

4.1 Goodreads · 811 ratings

192 pages· 39,397 words· Est. 5.5 hour read· ~1090L

$19.99Save 5%

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Bookroo's summary

In 1967, Bashir, a Palestinian refugee, returns to his childhood home in Israel, now occupied by Dalia, an Israeli student. Their unexpected friendship, born on the house's stoop, faces trials as political tensions rise. Can their bond withstand the pressures of history and identity, or will the land's divided past tear them apart? Discover a tale of hope and transformation in a land fraught with conflict.

From the publisher

In 1967, a twenty-five-year-old refugee named Bashir Khairi traveled from the Palestinian hill town of Ramallah to Ramla, Israel, with a goal: to see the beloved stone house with the lemon tree in its backyard that he and his family had been forced to leave nineteen years earlier. When he arrived, he was greeted by one of its new residents: Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student whose family had fled Europe following the Holocaust. She had lived in that house since she was eleven months old. On the stoop of this shared house, Dalia and Bashir began a surprising friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and later tested as political tensions ran high and Israelis and Palestinians each asserted their own right to live on this land. Adapted from the award-winning adult book and based on Sandy Tolan’s extensive research and reporting, The Lemon Tree is a deeply personal story of two people seeking hope, transformation, and home.

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