‘..The book will be a best seller of the decade…’ Huffington Post was right! This would be a best seller for sure. An awesome debut by any standards, this is a story that would resonate with the reader no matter where he is from.

The author has presented a heart-wrenching and inspiring story for everyone. Ahmed will remain a sturdy example of how motivation and survival instinct combined with intellect made him rise from the ashes.

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.

Some novels require that you patiently wait until you are drawn into the story. This is not one of those novels. The Almond Tree pulls you in from the outset and doesn’t let you go.

The Almond Tree is Michelle Cohen Corasanti’s debut novel. The story is a moving account of Palestinian peoples’ life in their ancestral homeland ravaged by the illegal occupation by Israel.

When this book came to me for review, they said it will remind you of Khaled Hoseinie’s Kite Runner and my cynical mind dismissed as a PR rant, or was I trying not to be influenced by the what is said about the book before I read it. Either way, after reading this book, I actually thought it had traces of Victor Frankl’s Man’s search for Meaning.

A work of fiction of fortitude, it is a tale that puts in the picture the chronicle of two exploited folks, one rolls into the intimidator; the other, the subjugated and is an anecdote of the populace, and not the politics with there is nothing further mind wrenching than one individual rutted in opposition to another foot on biased and geological diversity as in the end, people are just people.

The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti can inflict pain if you read it with an open mind. After suspending unjustifiable and indefensible pro-Israeli, pro-West bias, (why do Indians have it?) and accepting the Palestinians as human beings, the suffering of a people who have been denied the right to exist in their own homeland can leave you shocked and speechless.

When I received The Almond Tree for a review, I was already reading an interesting book on war. However, just to kill time while going home in cab, I picked up the book to go through the first few pages. After that, I could not put it down (earning the book another title: Unputdownable, thanks to my colleague!)

If I have to describe the book in one line, I would say ‘A beautiful work that touches your heart to the core – it teaches you life’s difficult lessons and shows how a man’s determination can change his world and the people he loves.’