The Almond Treeis based on my personal experiences and learning. I am a Jewish American who was raised in the US by Zionist parents. From the ages of 16 to 23, I lived in Israel, inside the green line, the 1949 Armistice lines. During that time, I attended Hebrew University where I received my BA in Middle Eastern studies. My department was composed of Palestinians from inside the green line and Jewish Israelis. My friends were both Palestinians and Israelis; we attended school and lived together in the dorms. Both groups invited me to their homes on weekends and during vacations.
When I went to Israel at the age of 16, I knew nothing about the Middle East or the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict. After seven years, I returned to the US having had my eyes opened. Wanting to learn more, I pursued a Masters in Middle Eastern studies at Harvard. I then continued my PhD at Harvard. At the same time I attended law school. While I was doing my Masters at Harvard, I met a Palestinian from inside the green line. He was a post-doc working jointly with his Israeli professor and a Harvard professor (similar to Ahemed, the protagonist’s situation in the novel). I married him in his village inside the green line and lived there that summer. As his English wasn’t good, we spoke in Arabic. He wanted to be a professor in the US.
So when I began to write The Almond Tree, I drew on not only my years of study but also my personal experiences in Israel and here in the US with both Israelis and Palestinians.
I never studied chemistry or physics in college and don’t know math. I did, however, have an understanding of nanotechnology and developing a new material for the next generation of computer chips from my translations. For the math and science questions in the book, I had to ask others. Come to find out, three of the answers are in fact wrong!