BOOK REVIEW: UNDER THE ALMOND TREE BY LAURA MCVEIGH

RATING

*****

REVIEW

I admit I am taken aback by all the negative reviews this book has received, because it was easily one of my top 2017 reads. A lot of the comments made revolved around the fact that it was not true to the refugee situation and that Laura McVeigh, being a white woman, was just cashing in on the refugee crisis. I must disagree. I am no expert, and cannot begin to imagine what the lives of these refugees are like, but I did not for a moment think that it was too cliché or that it was riddled with inaccuracies. I’ve read The Kite Runner, for instance – and I’m not trying to be stereotypical, but that’s the closest book I could think of that also talks about an Afghani family being thrown into war and having to leave their country, and I did think that the struggle and suffering were the same. The nature of the book needs to be put into context as well. This was a book that seemed to target younger readers, and as such, it was written in a simpler way perhaps, with just the right amount of violence and suffering to send the message across.

Under the Almond Tree is written from the perspective of Samar, a young Afghan girl, who along with her family, is on the Trans-Siberian railway trying to get to Moscow, where her aunt is assumed to be residing. As Samar and her family journey back and forth through different cities and towns, we also journey back and forth through time as she remembers her life back in Afghanistan and the events that led to their escape, while giving us glimpses of her life on this train at present. 

The execution of the two storylines and how they interweave and meet is absolutely brilliant. Once I hit the climax of the story, or the “plot twist” as it were, I literally put the book down in disbelief. I wanted to cry angry tears for all the injustices of the world.

Samar, who grew up listening to her mother regale them with beautiful stories, aspired to become a writer herself. To write stories and tell them to the world. She loved to read, her favorite book being Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and you can immediately find parallels between her world and that of Anna Karenina. Be it her journey on the train, or her faint suspicion that her mother may have had an affair at one point, all things that are told from Samar’s perspective and not necessarily ever confirmed or resolved. That was one of the things I enjoyed about this book, the fact that we could never know whether Samar ever made it to Moscow, or whether she survived her journey, or whether her mother really did have an affair, or whatever happened to her sibling…all things with no answers, and although it is extremely frustrating, but it is also extremely realistic. You, as a reader, don’t need to know all the answers, because that is not the point of this story. 

As Samar writes her story on the train, she finds friendship in the train conductor, who encourages her to continue writing and follow her dreams. Once we hit the turning point in the book, the whole story shifts into a dark and heavy read. My chest constricts just remembering all of it. I was in denial for a good part of it, but alas…I couldn’t put the book down, but I wanted to cry and shout and scream in agony. Samar is a good storyteller, a good narrator, she is extremely expressive and emotive, at the same time she continues to be hopeful. She sometimes comes across as naïve, but given her age, it was natural to be so.

The tragedies that the wars caused to the lives of these people are truly devastating. 

You get to meet and intimately know Samar’s entire family and extended family, which makes it all harder to bear. The characters are all convincing, well-rounded, complex and the development as the story progresses is genuine. Even the minor characters feel real. 

Definitely one of my favorite reads of 2017, and I highly recommend that it is read without any judgment. To just take in the story and delve into Samar’s world. I assure you, you will be left heartbroken by the end of it.