Tonia Shulman does not share her father's dream - forging a Jewish State out of the chaos of British Mandate Palestine. She hates the hardships of life in an isolated kibbutz south of Jerusalem – clearing rocky hillsides, washing in rationed cups of trucked-in water, and being confined behind barbed wire. Her own dreams have nothing to do with national self-realization; she longs for steaming bubble baths and down comforters, but most of all for a place on earth where she can feel safe. She falls in love with Amos but refuses to acknowledge these feelings. She knows he will never leave his homeland, and Tonia plans to emigrate to America. But can she really begin a new life there? The beginning of The Lonely Tree is interwoven with the true story of Kfar Etzion, a kibbutz that was overrun by the Arab Legion during pre-War of Independence hostilities. Yael Politis is a native of Michigan and has lived in Israel since 1973. In her spare time from writing fiction, she is employed as a Proposal Writer, Editor, and Hebrew-English Translator.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Title: The Lonely Tree
Author: Yael Politis ([...] )
Pages: 443
Year: 2010
Publisher: Holland Park Press ([...] )
Note: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher. Read other reviews at [...]
Do you like to read historical novels? Have you ever read any that were placed in the time before Israel was a nation? Can you imagine living in a community of people, sharing everything, and fighting with unyielding belief in a future yet unseen? While the author notes that the story here is totally fictional, it is hard when one reads the story to conceive that it is just fiction. The title "THE LONELY TREE" is based on a tree located in Etzion Bloc in Israel. It is the only tree there--a huge oak with roads that go around its base on both sides.
Yael Politis has written an extremely moving portrait of a nation, her people, her enemies and the lives lived there. While the main characters are the Shulman family, there are many other players who come in and out of their lives. It is like reading with a microscope and a telescope at the same time. For within this family's many adventures, there is nation in birthing pains. The Shulman family has three children, two girls and one boy. The reader walks alongside each of the family members as days, months and eventually years pass.
We witness the many possible horrors, sorrows, joys, surprises, hills and valleys the family traverses in these pages. For a time we focus on Josef, the father, but we lose sight of the mother and children. Josef believes that the Jews are meant to have a land and be a nation, though at that time, he is struggling to survive in the day-to-day challenges as well as fighting with a gun to hold off those who seek to take the land from him and many others who believe with him. We see him struggle to help his wife understand as well as try to be a father to his children.
We see the mother having to let her husband go fight, while seeking to know what happened to her parents and extended family. While in a camp with her husband, word comes of what has become of her family. The reader is engulfed with feelings, watching as this woman hears of the events that are happening to those she loves.
There are the lives of the children growing up amid a war, with all the horror and sorrow included. We see life goes on and the courage it takes to do so when young people want to get married while others want to go to university. Our hearts are tugged at while we read this novel. It has many adventures, romance, war, death, marriage, babies, and even one fleeing to what she thought she wanted--to live in a different nation.
There are, whether purposely or not, many questions that seem to enter the reader's mind as he/she travels through the story. Many may wonder if this work of fiction isn't actually a true story. Though fiction, one cannot help but look at the issues that are raised in the novel. I could discuss the issues, the story, even the ending. Yet, that would not only ruin it for you, but would also take away the fun of thinking and enjoying this book.
I will say that one must place themselves in the shoes of many characters, to wonder if the reader would do what he/she sees the character choosing to do. All of us may be surprised to see themselves in the thoughts and actions of the characters. We all have enemies, but not like Israel. We have people who don't like us because of how we look, our beliefs, our stand for what we believe to be right.
This is the second novel about the Jewish nation that I have read. I have always loved the Jewish people, perhaps more so because of the novels I have read. Anyone who reads this novel can't help but appreciate what the Jewish people and nation have gone through. Even if this is a work of fiction, there is historical fact in it, which makes it all the more possible that the characters may have experienced what the writer has put to paper.
Read it and see what you think.
Author: Yael Politis ([...] )
Pages: 443
Year: 2010
Publisher: Holland Park Press ([...] )
Note: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher. Read other reviews at [...]
Do you like to read historical novels? Have you ever read any that were placed in the time before Israel was a nation? Can you imagine living in a community of people, sharing everything, and fighting with unyielding belief in a future yet unseen? While the author notes that the story here is totally fictional, it is hard when one reads the story to conceive that it is just fiction. The title "THE LONELY TREE" is based on a tree located in Etzion Bloc in Israel. It is the only tree there--a huge oak with roads that go around its base on both sides.
Yael Politis has written an extremely moving portrait of a nation, her people, her enemies and the lives lived there. While the main characters are the Shulman family, there are many other players who come in and out of their lives. It is like reading with a microscope and a telescope at the same time. For within this family's many adventures, there is nation in birthing pains. The Shulman family has three children, two girls and one boy. The reader walks alongside each of the family members as days, months and eventually years pass.
We witness the many possible horrors, sorrows, joys, surprises, hills and valleys the family traverses in these pages. For a time we focus on Josef, the father, but we lose sight of the mother and children. Josef believes that the Jews are meant to have a land and be a nation, though at that time, he is struggling to survive in the day-to-day challenges as well as fighting with a gun to hold off those who seek to take the land from him and many others who believe with him. We see him struggle to help his wife understand as well as try to be a father to his children.
We see the mother having to let her husband go fight, while seeking to know what happened to her parents and extended family. While in a camp with her husband, word comes of what has become of her family. The reader is engulfed with feelings, watching as this woman hears of the events that are happening to those she loves.
There are the lives of the children growing up amid a war, with all the horror and sorrow included. We see life goes on and the courage it takes to do so when young people want to get married while others want to go to university. Our hearts are tugged at while we read this novel. It has many adventures, romance, war, death, marriage, babies, and even one fleeing to what she thought she wanted--to live in a different nation.
There are, whether purposely or not, many questions that seem to enter the reader's mind as he/she travels through the story. Many may wonder if this work of fiction isn't actually a true story. Though fiction, one cannot help but look at the issues that are raised in the novel. I could discuss the issues, the story, even the ending. Yet, that would not only ruin it for you, but would also take away the fun of thinking and enjoying this book.
I will say that one must place themselves in the shoes of many characters, to wonder if the reader would do what he/she sees the character choosing to do. All of us may be surprised to see themselves in the thoughts and actions of the characters. We all have enemies, but not like Israel. We have people who don't like us because of how we look, our beliefs, our stand for what we believe to be right.
This is the second novel about the Jewish nation that I have read. I have always loved the Jewish people, perhaps more so because of the novels I have read. Anyone who reads this novel can't help but appreciate what the Jewish people and nation have gone through. Even if this is a work of fiction, there is historical fact in it, which makes it all the more possible that the characters may have experienced what the writer has put to paper.
Read it and see what you think.
Format:Paperback
The Lonely Tree is the story of three people:
Josef Shulman, who is trying to find a place for his family in British Mandate Palestine, even as family and friends face persecution in Hitler's Europe. Is the price he ends up paying worth his sacrifice?
Tonia Shulman, Josef's daughter, who dreams of a life where showers are not limited to once a week, where one doesn't have to worry about flying bullets when they step out the door. She is able to build herself a better life, but does she like the person she's become?
Amos Amrani, who is as passionate about his cause as Josef, but chooses a different path to achieve it. Is he happy with the choices he's made?
When the teen Tonia meets Amos in an isolated kibbutz in Gush Etzion, we're already rooting for them. Because life is so hard - the constant threat of violence, the backbreaking labor, you badly want for them to have chance. But nothing in their life comes easy.
Amos stays back in Israel, making a life for his extended family amidst the hardships, while Tonia escapes to America, where she buys herself the house she's always dreamed of. Will their love survive the distance? More importantly, will it survive their choices?
There are some stories that stay with you long after the last page has turned. Yael Politis's The Lonely Tree is one of them. Watch for this writer.
Disclosure: I've edited Yael's subsequent, soon to be published, book.
Josef Shulman, who is trying to find a place for his family in British Mandate Palestine, even as family and friends face persecution in Hitler's Europe. Is the price he ends up paying worth his sacrifice?
Tonia Shulman, Josef's daughter, who dreams of a life where showers are not limited to once a week, where one doesn't have to worry about flying bullets when they step out the door. She is able to build herself a better life, but does she like the person she's become?
Amos Amrani, who is as passionate about his cause as Josef, but chooses a different path to achieve it. Is he happy with the choices he's made?
When the teen Tonia meets Amos in an isolated kibbutz in Gush Etzion, we're already rooting for them. Because life is so hard - the constant threat of violence, the backbreaking labor, you badly want for them to have chance. But nothing in their life comes easy.
Amos stays back in Israel, making a life for his extended family amidst the hardships, while Tonia escapes to America, where she buys herself the house she's always dreamed of. Will their love survive the distance? More importantly, will it survive their choices?
There are some stories that stay with you long after the last page has turned. Yael Politis's The Lonely Tree is one of them. Watch for this writer.
Disclosure: I've edited Yael's subsequent, soon to be published, book.
Format:Paperback
I was completely taken into a fasinating story of a young Jewish girl Tonia, growing up in a frightening, turbulant time in pre-Israel history. She is filled with a longing to find an escape from the hardships and danger, but struggles against her love for her family and heritage. She leaves it all behind for the comforts of the United States, but comes to realize who and what are most important in her life. A love story of man and woman, their families and the birth of a country. Couldn't put it down.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great Potential - Fascinating story
For the first 160 or so pages I couldn't stop reading this book. Despite some anachronisms and typos, the author recreated reality in prewar mandatory Palestine and has told an... Read more
Published on June 3, 2009 by R. Isseroff
Wonderful Book
I was looking for books about Grand Rapids (where I live) when I came across The Lonely Tree and ordered it on a whim. Read more
Published on May 17, 2009 by Anne G. Lewis
Wonderful, moving storyline
The Lonely Tree
The Lonely Tree is a moving story that is hard to put down once started. I've read lots of "Best Sellers" that aren't nearly as good a read as The Lonely... Read more
The Lonely Tree is a moving story that is hard to put down once started. I've read lots of "Best Sellers" that aren't nearly as good a read as The Lonely... Read more
Published on April 25, 2009 by M. Worden
Personalizing History
This well paced and well written novel fits nicely within the historical fiction genre. It is a blend of coming-of-age, romance and a war story seen through the eyes of an engaging... Read more
Published on February 21, 2009 by Jeanne
Superb Novel
A friend recommended the book and I purchased it out of curiosity. After the first page, I could not put it down. Read more
Published on January 14, 2009 by D. Srour
GREAT PIECE OF HISTORY, FINE WRITING
Very well written, compelling novel, based on historical events in Israel. Anybody who is interested in the story of the unfolding Jewish-Palestinian conflict would be rewarded. Read more
Published on December 13, 2008 by Calpurnia
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