REVIEW: The Island of Missing Trees (Elif Shafak)

Book: The Island of Missing Trees

Author: Elif Shafak

Premise: In 1974, two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided Cyprus, meet in secret at a tavern in the city they both can home, hiding beneath the leaves of a fig tree growing through the roof. Decades later in North London, sixteen-year-old Ada seeks to untangle years of her family's silence, but the only connection she has to the island her parents call home is a fig tree growing in the garden.

[⚠️TW: violence, war, homophobia, missing persons, alcoholism, grief]

This book was full of thought provoking ideas, emotions and different themes. We have a family who are suffocated with silences, unable to heal from grief and trauma. Each character is complex with different things they're grieving. I loved Aunt Meryem, with her loving personality and superstitions side. 

There's also the fig tree in the garden which also has a voice. I liked the fig tree as a narrator. It gave nature a voice and let it tell of its own grievances. I learned a lot about nature from the fig tree, like how trees that have suffered wildfires pass on the trauma so the next generation survive. I wanted to cry when the fruit bats were died and when the songbirds had been trapped. A lot of the book explores what we could learn from nature and we might have in common.

My only issue was that the story takes a bit of a back seat for most of it. It comes to the forefront for second half but I ended up wishing some of the plot had been explored more and wrapped up. Otherwise, a lovely book.