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| Sawitri and Seven Trees of Life |
This 295 pages book is written by Mashdar Zainal won Acarya Literature Award 2017. The book describes a man who loves trees very much. When he was a kid, he likes to spend most of his time playing with a tree near his house. Because of that, his father in a joke says that his son might marry a tree one day. The boy doesn't think further his father's joke, he is too young to understand what marriage is. What the boy concerns are how to save every seed he keeps so that they can grow into trees.
This boy grows into a very nice young man who married a patience girl. This couple has seven children. Every time they have a child, they plant a tree to commemorate the birth and life of the child. The tree grows and the child too. Both the tree and the child share the same story. They have a unique connection.
This book s suitable for teenagers. The book teaches how to learn life by respecting trees. When a child can take care of a tree that is planted on the same day as her birth, it means that this child has learned how to respect herself. Besides, the book also describes ordinary Indonesian life. As an example, the book narrates the first tree name Sumaiyah tree to represent the first child. Sumaiyah is a child who can graduate from junior high school. Then, she dedicates her life for the whole family by working in Saudi Arabia as a female migrant worker. She sends all her money to her parents to support her siblings. She faces hardship life all alone.
One day Sumaiyah kills her master who tries to rape her. According to Saudi Arabia law, Suamaiyah should accept a bitter life. Even she defend herself from being raped, but in the end, this innocent girl is beheaded and her body never returns.
Women leave Indonesia and try to find a better income in Saudi Arabia with no experience and no protection is not a secret for Indonesian. Many women are raped and killed, let alone unpaid.
This book depicts this sad condition clearly.
It is suggested this book is read in a group and discuss it deeply. Learn every tree means lear every character of humans in this world in general. There are seven characters of human that is categorized by the author.
