This is another beautifully written book from Elif Shafak. A touching family drama mixed with the historic recounting of awful suffering in Cyprus during the later part of the 20th century, a lot of which is told from the point of view of a fig tree. An extremely emotional read

The Island of Missing Trees is the latest novel by the wonderful storyteller Elif Shafak. 

The story starts with teenage Ada who has a breakdown and screams in her class until she runs out of breath. Her mother recently died and Ada has only her dad left. They live in London while the rest of their family lives in Cyprus. Ada has never met any of her relatives from Cyprus until now when Ada's aunt comes to visit. The narrative switches from present day to 1974 when Ada's parents started secretly dating, knowing only too well their love will be condemned by their families because Greek and Turkish Cypriots should not mix. Kostas and Defne regularly meet at the Happy Fig tavern with a fig tree growing in the middle of it through an opening in the roof witnessing the young love and everything else that's happening in the island. The fig is central to the story and it's one of the main narrators of the book which was genius in my opinion.

Shafak's beautiful prose shines through the novel and it made me pause and even reread certain paragraphs which I almost never do. The Island of Missing Trees is a story of love, conflict of religions, suffering, hope, but also a beautiful declaration of love for nature, especially trees.

I was drawn to this book because I like the author, but mainly because of the location where the story takes place - Cyprus. I spent a few months there working and travelling a decade ago. I was well aware of the animosity between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots but I have never actually read the history of their conflict which the novel discusses with sensitivity.  This was my third book by Elif Shafak and probably my favourite one. 

Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy in exchange for an honest review.

There are many books about troubled places and people, but very few manage to blend together stories about the two with such deftness as Elif Shafak does in this novel about a British-Cypriot family and their homeland. Teenager Ada knows little about her parents' past, but when an aunt she has never met arrives in England it gives her an opportunity to understand her roots. The story of her parents - a Greek-Cypriot and a Turkish-Cypriot - is a classic of forbidden love set against the backdrop of a land divided by war and human folly. Shafak moves easily between Ada's present and her parents' history without ever disrupting her narrative flow.

I'm always a bit suspicious of quirky narration - so when I first hit a chapter narrated by a fig tree I was sceptical. But I loved the parts from the tree's perspective. In fact, having a tree narrator is no less logical than any other type of third person or omnipotent narration. Not to mention the fact I will never look at trees in the same way again having read this. I certainly learned a lot about trees and nature and this would be a great read for anyone who is interested in or concerned about conservation.

The story is powerful and moving without being melodramatic and I liked the restraint. It doesn't need to be graphic to have an impact. Having been born in the 1980s I had not appreciated just how difficult things had been on Cyprus in the earlier 20th century with civil war and thousands of people killed or 'disappeared'. Although I know it's a divided island I had not been aware of the history of it. As with any story about war, you are left saddened by the needless destruction and pointless hatred, particularly between people who had lived in harmony beforehand.

Overall this is a really well written book with excellent descriptive writing that conjures up a real sense of place, and a story that is compelling and well paced. I could well see it winning literary awards, and deservingly so, but unlike some potential award winners, it is also extremely readable.

This is a book I highly recommend you read in long sittings. It is brilliantly written and charts the lives of a Greek and Turkish Cypriot, their loves and losses and marriage. The teenage life of their daughter and the very long life of their...Fig Tree. The book shows how wonderfully interconnected the world and its life forms are.

I just think you need to sit and read a lot of it at once to fully appreciate it. The book is wide ranging, and reading it in small sections in the first half hampered my enjoyment of it I think. The second half I read in very long stints and I loved it so much more! I think because I was reading long enough to see wide ranging plot points and character developments come together in one sitting, it made me appreciate this writing so much more. This writing that feels like you're just thinking as you read. It reads beautifully and effortlessly, it's a wonder.

My favourite narrative view was, by far, the Fig Tree. I could honestly take or leave the human characters, but the steady, wise and slightly acerbic voice of the Fig Tree had me putting off cutting my grass, buying Fig Rolls and considering buryung my Damson Tree come winter 🤣

Elif Shafak is a wondrous author, here she writes with imagination, originality, and lyricism, not to mention magical realism, of the people and natural environment of Cyprus. Set in different time periods, from the 1970s and up to more recent times, it is set in Cyprus and London. If you are unaware of the turbulent history of the island, then this novel provides a informative, human and compassionate account of its tragic, traumatising, troubling and turbulent past, of fractured communities torn apart by war, partition, division, religion, love, loss, grief, migration, the natural world, and the search for a sense of identity and belonging that refuses to be denied. There are families desperately seeking to locate their missing loved ones from the war, unable to find peace until they do.

There is narration from a fig tree, growing centrally through a tavern and winding its way through the roof, that observes the comings and goings of a young teenage couple, Romeo and Juliet if you will, that meet secretly there, they are Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot. The fig tree goes on to witness the devastation of war, the disappearances, the sorrow, and a symbolic cutting is taken to London. Ada is a London teenager struggling to hold it together, she is given a school assignment of interviewing an older family member, but her relatives are in Cyprus and she has never met them. However, this doesn't prevent her feeling an inner sense of need to know, to fill in the missing pieces and roots of her identity, to be who she is and belong. Ada's parents and the people of Cyprus are not the only ones traumatised, so is the natural world.

Shafak writes of pain and heartbreak through the prism of hope, moving on, renewal and healing, of the need to tell the stories of the past, rather than burying them, addressing the issues that hurt, and extend our concern and eyes to the natural world, to recognise its central integral place, like the fig tree growing in the tavern, within humanity and connect with it in the way our ancestors would have done. This is extraordinary storytelling, with great characters, I particularly loved Aunt Meryem, with some parts structured around the different parts of a tree. I found it to be profound, powerful and moving, of human connection and disconnection, of love, family, and history, of people, nature and an island home. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Another stunning novel by one of my favourite authors. I was unsure about the prospect of a fig tree as a narrator, especially after reading a novel which featured a cats perspective that really didn't work for me. However, I shouldn't have worried because it was such an emotive, poignant and human tale. I would highly recommend and I am so grateful for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Another thought provoking and insighful book from one ofmy favourite current authors. I wasn't sure about the fig tree as a narrator to start with but she grew on me. And I learned a lot about Cyprus. I am ashamed to say that, despite being in my early twenties, I knew almost nothing about the troubles on that island in the 1970s. I loved Ada and her father. With thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This latest book by one of my favourite authors was such a delight to read. Shafak writes with such beauty and expresses her heartbreak over the cruelty which exists within humanity and how we treat our world with moving poignancy.

The masterful skill for storytelling she always displays is a joy to behold in this book as she takes us on journeys through the mythical into the natural world showing us profound truths along the way. I enjoyed learning about Cyprus, about which I knew embarrassingly little. The characters had depth and I felt invested into them although at times they almost took a back seat behind the animal and plant characters we followed. Yet this by no means overshadowed the deep humanity Shafak understands and emotively paints in her writing. I yearn for the harmonious living she gives hope to in this book.

With thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for this free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was absolutely beautiful, thank you for giving me an advanced copy to the publishers/Netgalley/author.
Wow. What a beautiful book. A grand love story, an exploration of grief, love, familial roots, heritage and culture...if this book went on for another 350 pages I would have lapped it up.
The love between Kostas and Defne was so wonderful to read, and how they had to deal with religious and cultural problems being a Greek Cypriot and a Turk Cypriot, rings similarly true to home for me with Protestant+Catholic relationships in Ireland during the troubles.
Ada seemed like an endearing child. I struggled to understand why she didn't know anything about her parents but by the time I finished the book I understood. Also, as we find out that Defne never quite covers from the melancholy lent to her by years of endless loss, we can see her perspective too.
I thought the incorporation of a tree as a narrator was quite clever and it worked well. It also introduced us to the wonderful Yusuf and Yiorgos, who were real heroes to the protagonists at the beginning of the story and ultimately suffered for loving each other.
The fig tree provided great insight and really tied each timeline together.
Overall this was wonderful and I'm so glad I got to read it before publication!!

The blurb makes it clear that a tree is significant in this book, a fig tree that grows in the centre of a tavern and out through the roof. What the blurb doesn’t spell out is that a large part of the novel is narrated by this tree. I wish I had known that before I started reading because, in all honesty, I probably would not have started because I have a bad history with books narrated by non-humans. Clearly, this is a personal taste thing: the early reviews of the book on NetGalley (which is where I got my copy - my thanks to the publisher for an ARC) almost universally praise Shafak for this narrative choice, but I am afraid it rather ruined the book for me. Clearly, you should read it to make up your own mind: this is just my reaction.

At the start of the book, after a brief introduction to the history of Cyprus that ends with two bodies in a well, we are with Ada, a young girl in a London classroom. When she is set some homework for the Christmas holidays that requires her to interview an older relative, we learn that all her relatives, with the exception of her parents, are in Cyprus and she has never met them. There is clearly history here. Something triggers within Ada leading to some extreme behaviour. After this, the story starts to switch between Ada’s narrative (set in the late 2010s) and that of her parents, Kostas and Defne, set mostly in 1974 but also, later on in the book, dropping in on the early 2000s for another crucial period. Ada’s story is about uncovering/discovering roots. Her parents’ story, part of Ada’s root system, is about love in a time of division and war.

Structurally, the book is very reminiscent of Richard Powers’ “The Overstory”. The central sections are named for parts of a tree (roots, trunk, branches and ecosystem for Shafak here and similarly for Powers). Both books contain a lot of science about trees. If you’ve read The Overstory (or “The Hidden/Secret Life of Trees”) there’s nothing new here, but if you haven’t read those books, get ready to have your mind blown by the behaviour of trees. For me, I have to say that it didn’t work well here having a tree passing on all that science about itself and its relatives and it worked even less well when other creatures started passing on information to the tree that they had read in human books or on human gravestones. But, again, that’s my personal taste interfering.

And it’s not just trees here. Migration is a key idea and both birds and butterflies put in appearances with some additional science.

But I guess Cyprus is the key focus here. We are drawn in because we are hearing the story of two lovers, but the chapters narrated by our friend the fig tree often take time to fill in some of the details of Cypriot history. One of the main characters becomes involved in the Committee on Missing Persons (https://www.cmp-cyprus.org/) which was set up in order to try to find the remains of the many, many people who disappeared during the upheavals and Shafak explains in an afterword that several stories of missing people included in the book are based on true accounts.

This is a novel full of ideas and themes. For me, some of those themes are under-developed, especially those in Ada’s story where something dramatic is picked up by social media but then the whole thing just fizzles out.

I wish I could have loved this book more. And I know it’s me not the book, but I just can’t get past the erudite tree that tells us a lot of the story. I know there’s such a thing as magical realism, but, for my taste, that didn’t sit well here with all the science and history and culture.

But, read it for yourself because there’s every chance you will love the tree like everyone else seems to.

This is a book, beautifully written that engages you emotionally with its characters. Elif is a master story-teller and We are fortunate to read her stories.

This is a book of great story telling. It is set in present day London and in Cyprus during the years that eventually led to the separation of the country. We are being told the story of teenaged Ada, born in London to parents who came from different sides of the Cypriot divide. Through their story and the stories of others whose lives they touched, we also discover the story of their country.

It’s the idea of a creative genius to introduce a second narrator: a fig tree, that was brought to the UK by Ada’s parents as a keepsake to remind them of their beloved native country and the story of their love. A tree, of course, is a narrator of a very different kind; it has witnessed events over a length of time that encompassed many human life spans and is able to talk to fellow trees and to the many creatures for which they provide shelter, protection and food. When our fig tree reflects that ‘stories come to us not in their entirety but in bits and pieces …we have to weave our stories out of threads as thin as the miniscule veins that run through a butterfly’s wings’, it lays bare the narrative structure of this book.

The fig tree understands Ada’s deep-rooted sadness that does not seem to be quite her own: ’If families resemble trees … arborescent structures with entangled roots and individual branches … family traumas are like thick, translucent resin dripping from a cut in the bark. They trickle down generations.’ Bit by bit we discover the trauma Ada’s parents have suffered which is intrinsically linked to the trauma of their native country. Our tree grew from a cutting of an old tree and judging from its own experience, it suspects that trees and humans have some kind of subconscious memory that they pass on to their offspring. The fig tree’s melancholy is mirrored in Ada’s intangible sorrow and both discover that telling the stories of the past instead of burying them, provides the remedy to overcoming the traumas of unknown suffering.

In her ‘Note to the Reader’, Elif Shafak describes her book as ‘a mixture of wonder, dreams, love, sorrow and imagination’. It is also a book about our human desire to search and find belonging and identity – it will stay with me for a very long time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking / Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Elif Shafak has done it again! The Island of Missing Trees is a wonderful read that weaves together flawless fiction with the history (& natural history) of the island of Cyprus. It's the story of the forbidden love between Kostas, a Greek Cypriot, and Defne, a Turkish Cypriot. The story moves between time and place - 1974 Cyprus during the civil war, early 2000s Cyprus where families are still trying to find their love ones lost during the war, and London in the late 2010s where we meet Kostas & Defne's daughter, Ada.
We slowly uncover the story of Kostas & Defne's past and how the history of Cyprus shaped their lives. It's beautifully written, as we have come to expect from this author. One of the narrators in this novel is a fig tree, and I was surprised by how much I loved the chapters written from the fig tree's perspective.
I must admit I learned a lot from the novel, not only about Cyprus but about trees and nature too - I loved this aspect of the book.
Altogether, a wonderful novel. Not only did it pull on my heart, but it educated me too. I'm already looking forward to re-reading it.

What a wonderful book, there have been many books with a Greek background in recent years but this look at the impacts of Greek & Turkish tensions in Cyprus was fresh and sympathetically told. A really gentle way of encouraging tolerance and acceptance in life.
It was the little details from the 1950s that really sold this to me, knowing a small amount of niche history from the time & seeing it accurately told made me trust the whole book far more.

When I first started ‘The Island of Missing Trees’ by Eli’s Shafak I wasn’t sure. The idea of a talking tree didn’t really appeal but I persevered and was so glad that I did. The story was so interesting and I learnt a lot about the history of Cyprus.

A love story partly told by a fig tree about a young man and woman from Cyprus. Coming from opposite cultures, one Turkish, one Greek, their union is unlikely to survive. Against all odds it does albeit in exile. Their young daughter pieces together their passionate,unconventional story and in the process discovers her roots.
not my favourite Shafa book but one of great humanity, imagination and tenderness.
Thank you for letting me read this. I enjoyed it very much

This is the first book I've read from this author and while I didn't dislike it, I'm not sure I'll be in a rush to read another. It was a little too slow paced for me and I could only really get into it 3/4 of the way through. Obviously a lot of research has gone into it which I completely admire but I do feel there were parts of the story and characters that I would have liked to learn more about. It's a unique concept - giving a voice to what is commonly presumed to be an inanimate object and in truth it did make me think twice about the plants and insects we never usually give a thought to! I'd definitely recommend this book if it's a part of the world and a story that interests you but bear in mind it feels slightly slow at times.

This is an extraordinary novel. I was captivated from the beginning and it is really not clear how exactly the story will unfold until you finish reading it. It is a story about immigration or migration and families, grief, conflict, relationships and humanity. There are several timelines and locations, the first being the civil war in Cyprus in the 1970s. The main characters at this point are Defne, who is Turkish and Kostas, who is Greek. They are teenagers in love and have to hide this from their families - they find refuge in a tavern called The Happy Fig, which is run by a gay couple who also happen to be Turkish and Greek.

Some of the chapters are narrated by a fig tree. At first I thought this was a bit odd, but it is so well done and beautifully and cleverly written. The fig tree is able to bring together different threads of disparate storylines into a cohesive plot. Without the fig tree's narration, something would be missing.

I recommend this novel to anyone who has ever been to Cyprus, especially to Nicosia. The descriptions are vivid and bring memories of the place flooding back. The novel has a great sense of place brought about by the author's research and possibly personal experience.

The second setting is London, where the story centers around Ada, a british teenager with a Turkisk and Greek heritage who knows very little about her background. I found this fascinating and her difficulties after loosing her mother were portrayed very well.

It's difficult to say too much more without spoiling the read. Just read it, it's great! Elif Shafak is an author I have only come to know recently, but definitely one I will look out for to read more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

<i>"Because in real life, unlike in history books, stories come to us not in their entierty but in bits and pieces, broken segments and partial echoes, a full sentence here, a fragement there, a clue hidden in between. In like, unlike in books, we have to weave our stories out of threads as thin as the miniscule veins that run through a butterfly's wings."</i>

Enchanting book this which holds you invested in the story of it's characters. Written with the sensisbilities of a poet, the writing is imaginative despite the setting of real history of the island of Cyprus.

In the first few chapters about burying a fig tree and a classroom episode featuring the motherless Ada, the book manages to settle you in for a warm fireside storytelling session. The fig tree as one of the narrators ties together incidents and events in a clever and innovative manner.

The whole book is a clash of ethnicities, religion, idealogies and faiths. And yet, there is an underlying thread that binds the narrative together. The prose is brilliant.

The book is structured in three timelines - one at the time of civil war, one in Early 2000s and the latter in late 2010s In the first timeframe we meet young Daphne -a cypriot turk and Kostas - a cypriot Greek fall in love before the island's violent turn. At the centre of their story is a tavern called Happy Fig that houses a massive Fig tree run by a two men - a greek and a turk.

The early 2000's is a phase that makes sense of the violence on the island through the eyes of the generation who have been through it. It is also the critical piece in the life story of Daphne and Kostas.

The late 2010's is set in a London where Ada, the daughter and Kostas are moving on after Daphne's death. Their aunt Meryam comes to meet them and the aunt and niece bond over the importance of one's roots. The author is very clear that the sense of belonging is not just for people, but for the trees and animals of the country.

I did not know about the Cyprus's violent partition nor of the exhumations done to give closure to people without judging the guilt. A heavy subject handled with love.

An enchanting book from an author I am growing to like a lot!

Note: I would like to thank Penguin UK and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. The book will be released on Aug 5th worldwide.

This is the literary fiction I love. The book was able to weave seamlessly between generations, characters, timelines and settings all without me being lost. Their was even chapters from the point of view of a tree. Which I ordinarily wouldn’t have like but worked for this book.