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A review by amyvl93
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really liked The Island of Missing Trees, a novel about Cyprus and the lasting impacts of the civil war, and the partition of the island between Greece and Turkey.
The novel follows Ada in contemporary London, who has recently lost her mother (who was Turkish Cypriot) and is now living just with her father (a Greek Cypriot), who appears more interested in looking after his plants, in particular a fig tree, than anything else; and also explores the history of the family and by extension Cyprus from the 1970s to the almost present.
Large portions of this novel are narrated by a fig tree, which I was initially very unsure of, but came to really love - Shafak really considers the role of nature and how that is changed and not changed by human activity and cruelty. The device also enables some moments of connection that wouldn't otherwise happen - there's a particularly affecting few pages about a parrot which had me almost in tears when I read this next to the pool on holiday.
The characters that are drawn here are also incredibly well drawn - Kostas and Dafne shift from their idealistic teenage selves to adults deeply impacted by what they experience and missed from their time during and after the war, and Ada felt like a very real teenager, dealing with both grief and wanting to better understand the lives her parents led. I also fell in love with the tavern owners and adored all the descriptions of food here.
What is particularly affecting though, especially given the world we're living in now, is the writing of the random, unnecessary acts of violence meted out during the war, and the work done afterwards to enable people to grieve and mourn those they lost. I'm so happy this was longlisted for the Women's Prize which meant I picked it up earlier than planned, and I'm excited to see it has made the shortlist too.
The novel follows Ada in contemporary London, who has recently lost her mother (who was Turkish Cypriot) and is now living just with her father (a Greek Cypriot), who appears more interested in looking after his plants, in particular a fig tree, than anything else; and also explores the history of the family and by extension Cyprus from the 1970s to the almost present.
Large portions of this novel are narrated by a fig tree, which I was initially very unsure of, but came to really love - Shafak really considers the role of nature and how that is changed and not changed by human activity and cruelty. The device also enables some moments of connection that wouldn't otherwise happen - there's a particularly affecting few pages about a parrot which had me almost in tears when I read this next to the pool on holiday.
The characters that are drawn here are also incredibly well drawn - Kostas and Dafne shift from their idealistic teenage selves to adults deeply impacted by what they experience and missed from their time during and after the war, and Ada felt like a very real teenager, dealing with both grief and wanting to better understand the lives her parents led. I also fell in love with the tavern owners and adored all the descriptions of food here.
What is particularly affecting though, especially given the world we're living in now, is the writing of the random, unnecessary acts of violence meted out during the war, and the work done afterwards to enable people to grieve and mourn those they lost. I'm so happy this was longlisted for the Women's Prize which meant I picked it up earlier than planned, and I'm excited to see it has made the shortlist too.