Q&A with Zoulfa Katouh

A love letter to Syria and its people, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a speculative novel set amid the Syrian Revolution, burning with the fires of hope, love, and possibility. 

As a book lover, author and reviewer, I get a lot of books in the mail – I love ripping into those brown paper packages, especially when I’ve forgotten what I’ve ordered (midnight, mid-sleep orders have happened… or pre-orders from months earlier). But the best feeling is getting sent advanced copies of books, and getting a sneak peek of something so personal, so special and so valuable, before it’s out in the world. When I tore into the package from Bloomsbury and found the yellow and blue beauty within, everything stopped – it just had to be read, and read immediately.

And it was so worth it. As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is beautiful and compelling, heartbreaking, heart wrenching – literally un-put-down-able. I wish stories like this didn’t have to exist – that the pain, suffering and trauma didn’t exist, that the world was not such a cruel place. But it is, for reasons we can’t comprehend. And so, I’m grateful that voices like Zoulfa’s do exist. To help us understand, to process, to have empathy — to see beyond the trauma, to value every single life and to have hope, more than anything. In this book there is a love and tears, hardship and hope, faith and flowers. Written with authenticity and emotion, it’s books like these that make us appreciate every single life, in war and in peace.

I am incredibly honoured to have the opportunity to interview Zoulfa, and ask about her publishing journey, her inspirations and her hopes for her book.

Thanks Zoulfa! I’m always intrigued by people’s motivation to start writing. When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? What’s one thing that really drives you?

I’ve been a fanfic writer for more than ten years now, but I never thought of writing my own stories until my early twenties. I thought a person needed to have a degree in English Literature in order to write a book, but that’s not true at all. I did dabble in some short stories here and there, but never a whole book. 

What drives me is the way writing is so healing for me. It’s cathartic and I get that high athletes talk about getting when they exercise. That serotonin bliss boost. I feel like I’m there in the story. So in a way I write for myself as well as for my readers. 

Isn’t it interesting how we have these perceptions of what writers need to have. I hope it might inspire someone who reads this to try their hand at writing seriously too. Lemon Trees has extremely compelling characters and a riveting plot. What came first for you — the plot or the characters?

The idea came first. It was “a girl is trying to escape Syria” but wait! The next thought was immediately “a girl is trying to escape Syria and is haunted by her hallucination”. 

Salama is one of my favourite characters of all time. Which of the characters do you relate to the most?

I would have to say Salama because her and I share our pharmaceutical background. Although she is way braver than I am. 

What was your hardest scene to write?

All of chapter 21 for sure. 

Well, without giving anything away, let me just say that Chapter 21 made me cry. Which YA books have had the greatest influence on your writing?

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys 

Down Comes the Night and A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft

The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang 

Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali

All of Sabaa Tahir’s books

Sadie by Courtney Summers 

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke 

That’s a brilliant list of books – I cannot wait for S.K. Ali’s latest. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?

Don’t be afraid to rewrite your book. Really tear into it and spring clean the hell out of it. It works. Your writing gets better with each sentence so if you go back and edit the parts that you think need to be worked on, there will be a stark difference between the places where you didn’t edit. It would look a mismatched puzzle. 

That’s some advice I’m going to take myself! Writing YA is so very different to picture books. Can you share one thing in particular, that’s really important to you, that you hope for this book?

That readers see my characters for more than their trauma and sadness. I want them to have headcanons for them like “what would Salama’s and Layla’s first day at college be like?” or “Salama and Kenan adopting six kittens”. 

I can just imagine them with 6 kittens! Can you tell us something about your publishing journey that took you by surprise, that was unexpected?

I got a lot of rejections for Lemon Trees, so it still surprises me to this day when people tell me they loved my book. 

I can almost guarantee you that so many people will LOVE your book upon release. I hope this blog can become a place of inspiration for future writers so do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Write from your heart. Don’t tailor your book to what you think the market needs because somewhere out there is someone who needs your story. And never stop writing. 

That’s solid advice! And now, as the first interviewee on my blog, I’d like to ask a question that I hope will become the standard question of all interviews, if you could be any book character for a day, who would you choose?

I would be Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables. The Canadian wilderness is my home, and I would love to live there, far away and feeling like I’m at the edge of the world. 

I love Anne Shirley too. Thanks for your time Zoulfa! Congratulations on a wonderful book. I just know it’s’ going to go far and be amazing, and top all those best-seller lists.

Read on for a detailed description of As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, and don’t forget to pre-order from your local independent bookstore.

You can follow Zoulfa on Instagram, or visit her website.

“Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. 
 
Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe. 
 
But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.  
 
Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.”