Book Details
- Date Read: January 20, 2022
- Publication Date: July 2021, April 2022
- Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
- Format: Paper Book
- Page Count: 368
- Listening Time: 11 hours 43 minutes
- Print Publisher: Bloomsbury (2021), Penguin (2022)
- Audio Publisher: Bloomsbury (2021), Penguin Audio (2022)
The Island of Missing Trees Book Review
The Island of Missing Trees is the second novel I have read by Turkish-British author Elif Shafak and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In The Island of Missing Trees, two teenagers fall in love in the Republic of Cyprus which is located south of Turkey and Southeast of Greece. Their love blooms in the capital city of Nicosia during the time-period when Cyprus was annexed by the UK and war broke out between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots.
The two teenagers are of different ethnic communities and keep their love secret for safety reasons. Throughout the years, a fig tree bears witness to the events and is a character in the book, just the same as the human characters. A concept that fascinated me as a reader and was well done by the author.
As we follow the lives of the two main characters, we also follow the lives of those around them in two different time periods. We see glimpses of their lives as teenagers in Cyprus and their adulthood in Cyprus and London, and we meet their daughter in the present timeline. Elif beautifully weaves in characters who surround the couple with enough depth to know them as well.
I found myself moving slowly with this book and reading only a chapter or two at a time while it stayed on my mind throughout the day. It touches on love, conflict, history, and family lineage in a sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes heart-mending way. The sections of the book were broken up by the systems of a tree and I loved seeing the fig tree as a character. It was a unique concept and not done in a silly way, but in a beautifully meaningful way.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys non-linear love stories that are deep, reflective, inspiring, and sometimes heartbreaking.
Content warnings: War, Death, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Suicide, Abortion, Mental illness
