#BookReview: The Island of Missing Trees
The narrator is quite an unusual choice: the fig tree growing in the centre of the tavern where the young lovers met.
Turkish novelist Elif Shafak’s latest work ‘The Island of Missing Trees’ is a mesmerising tale of love and loss set against the background of civil war in Cyprus in the 1970s.
In a classic Romeo and Juliet love story, a Greek boy named Kostas and a Turkish girl named Defne meet secretly to escape the condemnation of their families in a country being torn apart along national lines.
They find refuge in the backroom of a tavern owned by two men who understand what it’s like to pursue forbidden romance.
Shafak moves the story back and forth across several decades, using their lives to highlight the damage the conflict caused to both those who fled and those who stayed behind.
The narrator is quite an unusual choice: the fig tree growing in the centre of the tavern where the young lovers met, which is later propagated by Kostas in the form of a cutting planted in his garden in England.
This wise but melancholy tree has been a silent witness to human pain and the dual suffering of the natural world when humans are consumed by hate.
Despite its heavy themes, the story remains hopeful, highlighting our capacity to overcome, while providing unique insight into a human tragedy.
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Follow The North Coast Courier on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube for breaking news
Telegram Broadcast Service: https://t.me/joinchat/yJULuN8NaCs5OGM0
WhatsApp Broadcast Service: Add The Courier to WhatsApp at 082 792 9405 and WhatsApp your name and surname to be added.
