Many years back, I decided I would only write about books I admired. My reviews would pay tribute to such books by analysing what they taught me about how life gets lived, or can be lived. Not far into my reading of Michelle Cohen Corasanti’s first novel The Almond Tree, it was clear that the novel challenged this old resolution. Sometimes a mediocre novel needs to be discussed because it sparks debate about troubling questions.
“My purpose in writing The Almond Tree, says Michelle Cohen Corasanti, “was to shine a light on Palestinian suffering and help bring about peace”.
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Corasanti’s story about suffering and peace: Ahmad, a Palestinian, gets a break, studies in an Israeli university, and proves to be smarter than everyone. Every time the Israelis ill treat the Palestinians, Ahmad consoles himself with calculations -- of problems in physics or mathematics. He becomes research assistant to a Zionist supervisor; Ahmad converts the Zionist heart. They become best friends and collaborators, all the way to America, and then Stockholm, to pick up their joint Nobel Prize. Ahmad, the exemplary Palestinian, says at one point in the novel: “The last thing I wanted to do was talk politics.” As reward for being politically comatose, he gets to live the American dream. Read More
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