The Island of Missing Trees

Written By Linda Malek

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
Reviewed by Linda
📘📘📘📘

Elif Shafak is a masterful storyteller - this is proven time and time again. When was the last time you read about Cyprus during the Civil War in the 70s? Or had an author make divisions between identities and nations feel palpable? But above all, I bet you’ve never read a book where the key narrator is a fig tree.

And in this novel it stands at the centre of Turkish Defne and Greek Kostas’ forbidden relationship when they first meet as teens in their hometown Nicosia and much later with their daughter Ada, in present day London. Of the many themes covered here, the most poignant for me was how great generational trauma can be. All of the unspoken burdens that Defne and Kostas tried to gloss over, found their way into Ada’s life with the cycle only broken by a reconnection with her roots - a reminder that everyone needs some grounding.

It is no coincidence that Elif has selected the perennial fig: scrumptious yes, but steeped in symbolism and majesty, it signifies truth, unity and understanding. But it also provides the equilibrium for this little family as they go through their struggles.

This is a powerful novel filled with several character perspectives and the addition of the fig tree gives something new and refreshing to savour - a deep dive into humankind and a nod to nature if you will. As always, Elif’s writing brings marginalised voices to the fore and this book is no exception. The Island of Missing Trees is descriptive, emotional and highly educational. Congratulations Elif 💙

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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