I have heard people talk about some books being life changers. If Kite Runner broke your heart, then this book is going to a do dervish dance on the broken pieces and make you bleed again.

The preconceived notion that the greatest creations in world literature have almost been achieved in the grim periods of time comes true with Michelle Cohen’s debut, The Almond Tree. Michelle, although is a lesser known novelist unlike other Jewish authors of enormous fame, Imre Kertész or Amos Oz but her literary explorations and rich narration can be feasibly equated to such canons of literature.

It has always been a pleasure for me to read a good book but so rarely it comes in hand. This year, I have just finished my first book and I am pretty glad about it. This is The Almond Tree, penned by Michelle Cohen Corasanti and published by Garnet, UK, in 2012…

 There is an increasing trend when reviewing fiction to consider the biography of the writer, as well as the work in question. It should be the case that the reader completes the text rather than the writer (or their life) being drawn upon to explain it. But when writing about a conflict as contentious as […]

While Huffington Post called it one of the best books of the decade, Aljazeera panned it as racist and orientalist. The Almond Tree is about the struggles of a Palestinian family under Israeli martial laws and what is an inescapable fact is that emotions of trauma and frustration, a sense of belonging or pain of separation, are all universal.

Jewish-American author Michelle Cohen Corasanti tells Abdullah Khan why she chose to tell the Palestinian side of the story in her novel The Almond Tree…

Like Cry, The Beloved Country, written by a white man in the voice of a black South African, which created awareness of Apartheid and Uncle Tom’s Cabin which was written by a white woman in the voice of a black slave and helped bring about the Civil war that ended slavery, Michelle has written in the voice of a Palestinian Muslim to shine a light on the plight of the Palestinians. Major publications such as The Huffington Post, Washington Report on the Middle East and The Daily Star say that The Almond Tree can be a game changer…

What will you do, if you move into a different world, away from all your worries and there is only peace, only peace there? Well, eh…I know that place and if you also want to be at that place then you indeed have to read this book.

If taken a pen or pencil to sit and mark the best parts of the book, then maybe the whole book has to be highlighted. The book remains with the reader for a long time even after the completion of the book! The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti is the most stunning debut book I have ever read…