The Lemon Tree http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Lemon-Tree-Sandy-Tolan/9781596913431

An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

By Sandy Tolan

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Reviews

Award-winning journalist Tolan highlights a friendship forged between a young Palestinian and an Israeli in 1967 and tested for the next 35 years. Read by the author. Simultaneous Bloomsbury hardcover. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

The title of this moving, well-crafted book refers to a tree in the backyard of a home in Ramla, Israel. The home is currently owned by Dalia, a Jewish woman whose family of Holocaust survivors emigrated from Bulgaria. But before Israel gained its independence in 1948, the house was owned by the Palestinian family of Bashir, who meets Dalia when he returns to see his family home after the Six-Day War of 1967. Journalist Tolan (Me & Hank) traces the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the parallel personal histories of Dalia and Bashir and their families-all refugees seeking a home. As Tolan takes the story forward, Dalia struggles with her Israeli identity, and Bashir struggles with decades in Israeli prisons for suspected terrorist activities. Those looking for even a symbolic magical solution to that conflict won't find it here: the lemon tree dies in 1998, just as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process stagnates. But as they follow Dalia and Bashir's difficult friendship, readers will experience one of the world's most stubborn conflicts firsthand. 2 maps. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Praise for "The Lemon Tree" "[An] extraordinary book A sweeping history of the Palestinian-Israeli conundrum Tolan's narrative provides a much-needed, human dimension to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But he also skillfully weaves into this tale a great deal of history, all properly sourced. Despite the complex and controversial nature of the story, this veteran journalist has produced a highly readable and evocative history."--"Washington"" Post"""
""The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East "is the story of two people trying to get beyond denial, and closer to a truth they can both live with. By its end, Bashir Khairi and Dalia Eshkenazi are still arguing, talking -- and mostly disagreeing. But their natures--intellectual, questing, passionate and committed--may represent the best hope of resolving one of the most intractable disputes in human history It is very tempting to write off the Israeli-Palestinian standoff as insoluble. But one lesson of "The Lemon Tree" is the relatively short span of its history. The conflict between the two peoples is little more than a century old."--"Seattle""Times"
"No novel could be more compelling...This book will haunt you long after you put it down. And it will certainly be one of the best works of nonfiction that you will read this year."--"Christian Science Monitor"
"A graceful, compassionate and unmuddied presentation of Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lives of an Arab and a Jew, strangers who forge a connection and a reconciliation while never veering from their passionate desires for a homeland."--"Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"
"Quite simply the most important book I've read for ages...a handbook to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a narrative that captures its essence through tracing the connected lives of two extraordinary individuals. Literally the single work I'd recommend to anyone seeking to understand why the conflict remains unresolved, and wh