Levantine BookGroup Relaunches With The Lemon Tree, Snow, and We Look Like the Enemy

On the first Wednesday of each month, from 7:30-9:30 pm, starting on October 7th with The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan, the Levantine BookGroup resumes as the only progressive Middle East book group in Southern California.

With meetings free to the public at Levantine Cultural Center and discounted books available at the Levantine bookshop, the new Levantine BookGroup returns from its early roots as a staple of the center back in 2001, 2002, 2003. This book group offers the opportunity to discuss books written by authors of Middle Eastern origin or writing about Middle Eastern cultures and societies. Non-fiction and fiction will alternatively be selected to cover the rich literary production emanating from or about this region.

The Lemon Tree Recounts Personal Stories of Palestinians and Israelis: first selection of the Levantine BookGroup '09The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan will open this session on October 7th, with the author participating in discussion from 8:30-9:30 pm. Sandy Tolan is a journalist, professor and documentary radio producer, and winner of numerous national and international honors for his reports in more than 30 countries. His latest book, The Lemon Tree, is about the human side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relates the true story of one house and two families, one Palestinian and one Jewish, their friendship and their identities in the context of the most enduring conflict in the Middle East. These interlinked stories give an amazing insight to a history that is rarely told from two different perspectives at once. Read a review.

New Levantine BookGroup Fall Schedule

SEPTEMBER 2009 The Lemon Tree, Sandy Tolan
OCTOBER 2009 Snow, by Orhan Pamuk
NOVEMBER 2009 TBA
DECEMBER 2009 We Look Like the Enemy, by Rachel Shabi