Sandy Tolan is a teacher and radio documentary producer whose work often explores the intersection of race, sports, and American heroes. His literary journey, informed by extensive reporting from over 30 countries, delves deeply into the complexities of the Middle East. As a co-founder of Homelands Productions and a seasoned journalist, Tolan uses his talents to uncover nuanced narratives. His approach blends meticulous research with compelling storytelling, making his works insightful explorations of the human experience.
In the summer of 1967, not long after the Six Day War, three young Palestinian men ventured into the town of Ramla in Israel. Dalia, who arrived in 1948 as an infant with her family, as a fugitive from Bulgaria, sees hope for a people devastated by the Holocaust.
In 1967, a twenty-five-year-old refugee named Bashir Khairi traveled from the Palestinian hill town of Ramallah to Ramla, Israel, with a goal: to see the beloved stone house with the lemon tree in its backyard that he and his family had been forced to leave nineteen years earlier. When he arrived, he was greeted by one of its new residents: Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student whose family had fled Europe following the Holocaust. She had lived in that house since she was eleven months old. On the stoop of this shared house, Dalia and Bashir began a surprising friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and later tested as political tensions ran high and Israelis and Palestinians each asserted their own right to live on this land. Adapted from the award-winning adult book and based on Sandy Tolan's extensive research and reporting, The Lemon Tree is a deeply personal story of two people seeking hope, transformation, and home.