Holland Park Press is a new London-based publishing company that publishes literary fiction and poetry.  This publisher also endeavors to introduce the work of Dutch authors to English language readers.  I was offered by the publisher a copy of “The Lonely Tree” by Yael Politis (not Dutch, incidentally).  I was both hesitant and intrigued, but went ahead and accepted the offer.  Once I started reading, I was pleasantly surprised that any reservations I had about this book disappeared. 

I was initially under the impression that this book would be solely a romance — not a genre I typically read.  However, I accepted this book because I was intrigued by the setting and time period.  The story begins in British Mandate Palestine, during the early 1940s, and focuses on early Jewish settlers from Poland that establishes a kibbutz in a country that they consider their biblical homeland.   The characters’ lives are interwoven with historical events over the next several years.

The driving force of this story is Tonia Shulman, the daughter of one of the kibbutz’s founders.  My dictionary defines a kibbutz as “a community settlement, usually agricultural, organized under collectivist principles”, and states that kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz) began in the early part of the 20th century, in what is now Israel.   Kibbutz settlers tended to be idealistic young Zionists, like the founders of the novel’s kibbutz, called Kfar Etzion (this was an actual kibbutz in real life).  This kibbutz starts out relatively peacefully:

“All was going well, and Kfar Etzion began to feel like home.  A dozen young Arab men from the surrounding villages had come to the new kibbutz asking for work.  They toiled side by side with their new Jewish neighbors, helping to weed the orchards and put in a vegetable garden”.

Almost from the beginning, Tonia heartily dislikes the concept and lifestyle of the kibbutz.  If she receives a new dress, it isn’t really her own.  She has to share it with the other residents.  She feels poor.  Throughout this story, even in adulthood, Tonia struggles with these feelings, and often attempts to turn her back on her background.  Adding to Tonia’s mixed feelings about settling into Palestine, she continually senses that eventually the Arabic population will be affected by future events– therefore, she struggles with the concept of pushing out the Arabs (this is how they are referred to throughout the novel, rather than Palestinians) from their homes and villages. 

Driving this story, though, is the fact that  Tonia falls in love with a Yemeni Jew, named Amos.  If you have read (or are about to read) my review of “We Look Like the Enemy” by Rachel Shabi, you will realize that to this day, there often is prejudice by Ashkenazi (European) Jews towards Jews of Middle Eastern descent (Yemen is an Arabian Peninsula state).  Therefore, Tonia’s parents disapprove of Tonia’s relationship with Amos.  And, not only that, Amos is a Palmach fighter in the Jewish Underground, an organization that Tonia’s father opposes.

Amos’ widowed mother, Rachel, does likes Tonia, but is initially puzzled at her friendliness (they meet before Tonia realizes that Rachel is Amos’ mother):  “…Rachel knew how these Polish and German Jews looked down their noses at the Yemenites.  The snobs in Rehavia treated their dogs with greater kindness than they did their Yemenite cleaning woman.”

Of course, oftentimes in books, the path to lasting true love is never smooth.  This book is no exception in using this formula. Will Tonia and Amos end up together, happily ever after?  Read “The Lonely Tree” to find out.  In addition to this love story, this book can also be categorized as historical fiction.   For instance, Tonia’s family is horrified at the events of Nazi Germany.  Although they are relatively far away, living in Palestine, they learn that there has been a great loss of Jews; including their own family members.  This book also touches on how the British handed over Palestine, the birth of the state of Israel, and continues through to the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

At 443 pages, I finished this book in a couple days.  This is quite an accomplishment, considering the many distractions of summertime.  There were a couple plot points that I didn’t find totally plausible (such as when Tonia impulsively decides to give up her business — although the reason for it was understandable).  Also, sometimes, I felt that Tonia took on a Scarlett-like tone (i.e. an attitude of  “I will never be hungry again” ,  at great cost towards her loved ones).  Tonia does not come across as self-centered as Scarlett O’Hara, though.

But overall, I recommend this book if you want to know, in a historical fiction format, more about the setting and time era.  I would recommend this book because of that perspective.  The romantic interest is a nice additional touch.   ”The Lonely Tree” can be ordered directly from Holland Park Press; currently it does not seem to be available (new) on amazon.com or The Book Depository.  Released earlier this year, perhaps more attention will grow towards this book; therefore becoming more readily available.  I’d say it’s worth the effort of ordering directly from the publisher, although I don’t know how fast they ship or their shipping costs.

Disclosure:  Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of “The Lonely Tree” to review.

Have you recently read any good multicultural historical fiction, or romance, set in the same time era of “The Lonely Tree”?  Any other thoughts?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 9:24 PM and is filed under book review, books, controversy, historical fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.