The Island of Missing Trees

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. Viking

Teenager Ada has the worst day ever at school when she stands up and screams in front of her class. Life has been tough for her after her mum dies and her father is left heartbroken. Then her mother’s sister arrives and it feels like it’s all getting worse. Why didn’t her aunt show up at her mum’s funeral? But this book isn’t so much about Ada as about her parents, how they met, how two people from Cyprus ended up in London, and about a fig tree.

This book is one that shifts from the present to the past and back again. And it has multiple perspectives, the most interesting being that of the fig tree. Essentially this tells the tale of two young people from Cyprus and their struggle for love, being of different nationalities and religions, and living in a hotspot of political unrest. Much of the story tells of the unrest in Cyprus with the stories of Kostas and Defne against this backdrop. And then there’s the fig tree, a central part of the story. Its account is something of a fly-on-the-wall perspective at times but then it takes on a fantastical aspect with its communication with other living things that helps fill in some of the gaps of the story. The story has themes from nationalism, religion, climate change, and family and they all are interconnected with the life of people, animals, and plants.

I really enjoyed this but I can see there’s a certain abstractedness that would make it less appealing for many. While there is love involved, I don’t see this so much as a romance but about love. And it’s not just that between Kostas and Defne but about a wider range of the experience of love. After all, it’s something that breaks apart families when it’s not accepted. It’s also about the losses people suffer because of it. It’s about choosing sides and family loyalties. It’s all really thought-provoking without being a hard and dried analysis. The writing is lovely, sensitive and emotive and allows the reader to take it in slowly. I suspect this is the reasoning for shifting back and forth in time as it might well overwhelm the reader otherwise.

I give this four stars overall. I would like to thank Netgalley and Viking for sharing an advanced reader copy. I am providing this review voluntarily.