BOOK TITLE: The
Almond Tree
ISBN: 9788172344870
AUTHOR: Michelle
Cohen Corasanti
GENRE: Fiction
NUMBER OF PAGES: 352
FORMAT: Paperback
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
REVIEW BY: Dhivya
Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: I
got this book via a Readers Cosmos review program. With many thanks.
SUMMARY:
Gifted with a brilliant mind that has
made a deep impression on the elders of his Palestinian village, Ahmed Hamid is
nevertheless tormented by his inability to save his friends and family. Living
under occupation, the inhabitants of the village harbour a constant fear of
losing their homes, jobs, belongings – and each other.
On Ahmed’s twelfth birthday, that fear becomes a reality.
With his father now imprisoned, his
family’s home and possessions confiscated and his siblings quickly succumbing
to hatred in the face of conflict, Ahmed embarks on a journey to liberate his
loved ones from their hardship, using his prodigious intellect. In so doing, he
begins to reclaim a love for others that had been lost over the course of a
childhood rife with violence, and discovers new hope for the future.
REVIEW:
There are some books that get a place
of honour in our bookshelves. These are the books that are treasured most of
all, read and reread until the pages are dog-eared. ‘The Almond Tree’ well
deserves this place. I received this book via a Readers Cosmos Review program.
Thanks to them for sending me such a book.
As a book, The Almond Tree has been
praised enough. All over the web and the literary circles, it has been hailed
as the most engrossing book of the year. My review is on the same lines, not
because I have to go with the flow, but because I genuinely like it. This is
one book that deserves praise it gets.
A woman writing via the eyes of a
native man in a country she did not originally belong to is no easy feat. But Michelle
writes a first person narrative via Ahmed Hamid so easily that sometimes it
seems like a memoir. This is a tale of misunderstood people, those people who
we frequently see in the news but really know very little about. How many of us
have taken sides in the Israel Palestine issue without actually knowing what it
was about?
From a twelve year old brutally
exposed to murder of his baby sister to a venerable sixty plus year old, Ahmed’s
journey is one of learning every day of his life. Starting with a scarred
childhood frequented with loss of love, property and perpetual scare of losing
something/someone of value, Ahmed decides to shred all hatred and live his life
in the alternate way. This is the most striking feature of the novel to those of
us who are used to revenge and payback being prime aspects in novels.
From a devoted son to a responsible
sibling to a diligent student and finally a ripe old man, Ahmed journeys, and
on his way, dispels the darkness of hatred and shows that the fight really is
not between the two natives but because of the entry of a third power. This is
applicable to countries as well as personal life. Read this book to know more
of the story. The book also has its share of memorable phrases and dialogs.
“Courage, I realized, was not the absence of fear: it was the absence of
selfishness; putting someone else's interest before one's own.”
“People
hate out of fear and ignorance. If they could just get to know the people they
hate, and focus on their common interests, they could overcome that hatred.”
“He
looked me directly in the eye. “So you live in America?'
'We do.' I smiled. He stopped, opened his backpack, pulled out an empty tear gas grenade and handed it to me. 'I believe it was a present from your country.' Majid smiled. 'Tell your friends thanks. We got their grenade.”
'We do.' I smiled. He stopped, opened his backpack, pulled out an empty tear gas grenade and handed it to me. 'I believe it was a present from your country.' Majid smiled. 'Tell your friends thanks. We got their grenade.”
WHAT I LIKED: Almost everything about the book. Especially the
almond tree which is Ahmed’s Bodhi Tree. (Buddha reference). It gave Ahmed a
means to watch ‘the other world’ and the author an apt title for her book!
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: Nothing much to mention. Maybe some facts need to
be polished.
VERDICT: I would surely recommend this book for anyone who
wants to read a meaningful story.
RATING: 4.5/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michelle Cohen Corasanti grew up in a
Jewish home in which German cars were boycotted and Israeli bonds were plentiful.
Other than the blue-and-white tin Jewish National Fund sedakah box her family
kept in the kitchen and the money they would give to plant trees in Israel, all
she learned growing up was that after the Holocaust, the Jews found a land
without a people for a people without a land and made the desert bloom.
Until third grade, Michelle attended public school and then she transferred to the Hillel Yeshiva. The greatest lesson Michelle feels she learned at this Yeshiva was articulated by Rabbi Hillel (30BC-10AD), one of the greatest rabbis of the Talmudic era in his famous quote, “That which is hateful to you, do not unto another. This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.” There were two students in her sixth grade graduating class.
Michelle returned to public school for seventh grade, stopped wearing skirts with pants underneath and re-befriended her former best-friend whom she had lost touch with during her yeshiva years. Her friend’s father had since died, her mother turned into a raging alcoholic and her older brothers spent most of their time in their bedrooms listening to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in a state Michelle still was too young to recognize. Michelle’s friend lived without rules as she had no supervision. Just what every teenage girl wants and what every parent doesn’t.
Being the oldest and the only daughter in the family, Michelle’s parents’ strictness suffocated her. She decided she wanted to study abroad in Paris in order to get distance from her parental-choke-hold. Her Zionist parents rejected that idea and sent Michelle to Israel to study Judaism and Hebrew with the Rabbi’s perfectly well-behaved and obedient daughter Miriam. Michelle was sixteen-years-old and the year was 1982.
Until third grade, Michelle attended public school and then she transferred to the Hillel Yeshiva. The greatest lesson Michelle feels she learned at this Yeshiva was articulated by Rabbi Hillel (30BC-10AD), one of the greatest rabbis of the Talmudic era in his famous quote, “That which is hateful to you, do not unto another. This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.” There were two students in her sixth grade graduating class.
Michelle returned to public school for seventh grade, stopped wearing skirts with pants underneath and re-befriended her former best-friend whom she had lost touch with during her yeshiva years. Her friend’s father had since died, her mother turned into a raging alcoholic and her older brothers spent most of their time in their bedrooms listening to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in a state Michelle still was too young to recognize. Michelle’s friend lived without rules as she had no supervision. Just what every teenage girl wants and what every parent doesn’t.
Being the oldest and the only daughter in the family, Michelle’s parents’ strictness suffocated her. She decided she wanted to study abroad in Paris in order to get distance from her parental-choke-hold. Her Zionist parents rejected that idea and sent Michelle to Israel to study Judaism and Hebrew with the Rabbi’s perfectly well-behaved and obedient daughter Miriam. Michelle was sixteen-years-old and the year was 1982.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback
PRICE: Rs. 207 for
Paperback
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