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<\/a>My new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land<\/i>, will launch in April, officially on April 21 with a talk at the downtown LA Public Library’s ALOUD series, hosted by NPR’s Kelly McEvers. A two-week national tour follows.\u00a0 We\u2019ve received wonderful initial feedback so far, including “blurbs” from Yo-Yo Ma and Reza Aslan, and glowing reviews from Booklist and others. We’ve set up a page to keep track of tour details as well as other news about the book itself and the conversations it hopefully inspires. We do want to help change the conversation in this country about Palestine\/Israel. I would love you to take a look, like the Facebook author page, and stay in touch.\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SandyTolanAuthor<\/a><\/p>\nThanks for taking the time to peruse the quotes and reviews that are coming in — we’re pretty honored and thrilled about it. And a special shout-out to my Bloomsbury editor, Kathy Belden, for her fantastic work on this book (and The Lemon Tree, too). Meantime, it would be great if you could like my author page. Hope to see you on the road!\u00a0 More here<\/a>, or click through for a book description and comments from Yo-Yo Ma and others.<\/p>\n Book\u00a0description<\/b><\/p>\n It is an unlikely story.\u00a0 Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, a child from a Palestinian refugee camp, confronts an occupying army, gets an education, masters an instrument, dreams of something much bigger than himself, and then, through his charisma and persistence, inspires scores of others to work with him to make that dream real. The dream: a school to transform the lives of thousands of children\u2014as Ramzi\u2019s life was transformed\u2014through music.<\/p>\n Musicians from all over the world came to help. A violist left the London Symphony Orchestra, in part to work with Ramzi at his new school, Al Kamandjati. An aspiring British opera singer moved to the West Bank to teach voice lessons.\u00a0 Daniel Barenboim, the eminent Israeli conductor, invited Ramzi to join his West Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he founded with the late Palestinian intellectual, Edward Said. Since then the two have played together frequently. \u201cRamzi has transformed not only his life, his destiny, but that of many other people,\u201d Barenboim said. \u00a0\u201cThis is an extraordinary collection of children from all over Palestine that have all been inspired and opened to the beauty of life.\u201d<\/p>\n Children of the Stone chronicles Ramzi\u2019s journey\u2014from stone thrower to music student to school founder\u2014and shows how through his love of music he created something lasting and beautiful in a land torn by violence and war. This is a story about the power of music, first, but also about freedom and conflict, determination and vision. It\u2019s a vivid portrait of life amid checkpoints and military occupation, a growing movement of nonviolent resistance, the prospects of musical collaboration across the\u00a0Israeli\u2013Palestinian divide, and the potential of music to help children everywhere see new possibilities for their lives.<\/p>\n Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land In a world where so much popular fiction depicts life in a dystopian world, it is refreshing to have this non-fiction account that reflects one individual\u2019s belief in the power of music and culture to transform lives. Congratulations to Sandy Tolan for bringing us the story of Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, his philosophy and his personal mission to make a difference.\u00a0 His story is proof of the famous words of Margaret Mead \u2013 \u201cNever doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it\u2019s the only thing that ever has.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/i><\/b>Yo-Yo\u00a0Ma<\/b><\/p>\n Somewhere amidst the separation barriers and the countless checkpoints, the refugee camps and the demolished homes, the fruitless negotiations and endless conflict, there is a people yearning for a life of dignity and normalcy. You won\u2019t see them on TV or in many newspapers. But you will find them in\u00a0Children of the Stone<\/i>, Sandy Tolan\u2019s moving account of the dispossessed children of Palestine, and the transformative power that music has had in giving them meaning and reason for hope.<\/p>\n –\u00a0Reza\u00a0Aslan, author of\u00a0No god but God<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Children of the Stone\u00a0<\/i>is alive with compassion, hope and great inspiration. It is not necessary to believe in music’s power to defeat evil in order to be enchanted by this wonderful story.<\/p>\n – Tom Segev, Israeli historian and\u00a0<\/b>a<\/b>uthor of\u00a0One Palestine, Complete\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0The Seventh Million<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Sandy Tolan, author of the celebrated Lemon Tree, has produced another gem on what is happening under the surface in Palestine. This time the theme is the the liberating potential of music. The\u00a0book\u00a0contains enthralling \u00a0biographical trajectories of ordinary people fighting against the odds, like Ramzi the violist, Suhail the musical composer, Mariam the singer, Al\u00e1 the aspiring violin student, Suraida the activist, who use music as an instrument of resistance and survival under military rule. Written in the style of investigative journalism, the\u00a0book\u00a0is riveting and uplifting, without skirting issues of contestation and controversy.<\/p>\n – Salim\u00a0Tamari, Professor of Sociology, Bir Zeit University (West Bank) and author of\u00a0Year of the Locust:\u00a0\u00a0An Soldier\u2019s Diary and the Erasure of Palestine\u2019s Ottoman Past.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Sandy Tolan’s narrative artistry fuses the coming of age of a talented, ambitious, and fiercely dedicated musician with the story of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories conquered in 1967.\u00a0 Ramzi Aburedwan’s music is powerful – even more so when we understand it as a form of resistance to occupation.\u00a0 Humanizing Ramzi and other Palestinians by portraying them primarily as musicians working in a universal idiom is a major contribution to our understanding of who they are and essential to a political resolution of the conflict.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n – Joel\u00a0Beinin, Professor of Middle East History, Stanford University<\/b><\/p>\n A resolute, heart-rending story of real change and possibility in the Palestinian-Israeli impasse.<\/p>\n –\u00a0Kirkus\u00a0Reviews<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Eye-opening\u2026Tolan\u2019s exhaustive research and journalistic attention to detail shine through every page of this sweeping chronicle.<\/p>\n – Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The one I can\u2019t put down\u2026<\/p>\n – Library Journal<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land, will launch in April, officially on April 21 with a talk at the downtown LA Public Library’s ALOUD series, hosted by NPR’s Kelly McEvers. A two-week national tour follows.\u00a0 We\u2019ve received wonderful initial feedback so far, including “blurbs” from more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nChildren of the Stone<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\n<\/i><\/b>Comments and review excerpts<\/b><\/p>\n