Jun 12

Jun 12 The Island of Missing Trees

Author: Elif Shafak
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he's searching for lost love.

Years later a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited--- her only connection to her family's troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world.

A moving, beautifully written, and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history, and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak's best work yet.

TL;DR Review

The Island of Missing Trees is a beautifully written, mournful little love story. While I don’t think it was perfect, I liked it very much and would recommend it.

For you if: You like an unconventional (read: kind of magical) narrator.

Full Review

The Island of Missing Trees was my last read from the 2022 Women’s Prize shortlist, and my second by Elif Shafak. While I don’t think it was perfect, I liked it very much and would definitely recommend it.

The story takes place on two timelines. In the late 2010s, a teenage girl named Ada and her father (Kostas) are still grieving the death of Ada’s mother (Defne), and her Defne’s sister comes to visit them in London. Throughout, we also flash back to trace Kostas and Defne’s relationship over time. They lived in Cyprus during a period of civil war, he being Greek and Christian and she being Turkish and Muslim, and had to hide their relationship. The story is narrated by a fig tree that grew in the tavern where they would meet, and which Kostas brought with them to London.

This is a quietly sad love story; but it’s also about generational memory/trauma, and family, and freedom, and home; and also about the beauty and wonder of the natural world around us, trees and animals alike. It took me a little bit to fully settle into the story, but once I did, I really, really enjoyed it. I was most drawn to the chapters set in flashback. It’s also written in very short chapters, which always helps propel a story through time.

I had mixed feelings about our tree narrator. On the one hand, she could tip a little bit cheesy, and I found some of her interludes about the natural world extemporaneous — think, like, Bewilderment (or maybe The Overstory would be a better comparison, but I haven’t read that one yet so can’t say for sure). That said, it’s her voice that gives this novel the storytelling vibe that I came to ultimately love.

If you’re curious about this one, especially the tree narrator telling us a mournful love story, definitely give this one a shot.