The Island of Missing Trees

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Shafak, Elif	4-week checkout	In transit
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Shafak, Elif	4-week checkout	Due 05-01-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Shafak, Elif	4-week checkout	Due 05-19-2024

"Reese's Book Club"-- Some dust jackets.
"First published in 2021 in Great Britain by Penguin Random House UK"--Title page verso.
"Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he's searching for lost love. Years later a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited -- her only connection to her family's troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world. A moving, beautifully written, and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history, and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak's best work yet." -- Jacket flap.
A novel about belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Average story, though interesting to learn about this historical event submitted by 21621031390949 on June 12, 2023, 12:31pm This book started off very well, but for me, it bogged down as it went on. I tired of the device of the fig tree’s narration. Also, I was listening to the recorded version, and did not particularly enjoy the reader’s interpretation.

I did, however, find interesting the information about historical/cultural issues from the recent Crete war. It’s a part of the world I know little about, and although I read about this conflict in newspapers, I didn’t have a good understanding of what happened. I know a little more from this book. Unfortunately, it sometimes felt a little preachy, especially when points were being explained by a FIG TREE!

Will have to return it half-read. Did not like it as much as her other book I read first. submitted by Tassos on November 21, 2023, 5:04pm No time to write detailed comments about what was wrong in the half of the book I read, but I don't expect the author to read this review, if she does, she can ask for them.