A review by escape_through_pages
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

3.0

'𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙤 𝙪𝙨: 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙣𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙨, 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚; 𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙨𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣.'

Cyprus holds fond memories for me. I spent several weeks in Paphos for my university elective back in the early noughties. My lasting memories from that trip concern the people we met. Welcoming, open people, filled with pride for their homeland. Our placement supervisor was so keen we see the beauty of the country, he gave two of his medical staff days off so they could take us on a long weekend road trip. 

From Paphos we travelled to Nicosia, stopping in Limassol and Larnaca. In Nicosia, we were welcomed into the family home of one of our hosts, strangers put up for two nights, so we could properly explore this divided city. 

I won’t forget the image of gazing into No Man’s Land. Standing in the city centre on the Greek Cypriot side, there was a wall topped with barbed wire at the end of the street, you’d look one way and see the hustle and bustle and then you’d look over the fence and see a deserted space, very surreal.

This division, this conflict in the 1970s between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, forms the basis of Elif Shafak’s latest story. Forbidden lovers, Kostas and Defne meet in secret in a taverna until forced apart for over 20 years. Shafak, as ever, manages to evoke a scene via all senses, you can almost smell and taste the food through her descriptions. 

Offset with the modern day story that centres on teenage Ada, the daughter of Kostas and Defne, the story alternates between timelines, which serves to depict the generational impact of grief, trauma and migration. 

There is no doubt in my mind that Shafak is a superb storyteller. Her words are a pleasure and ease to read, I really enjoyed both The Bastard of Istanbul and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds. However, this book missed the mark for me. 

At the risk of ostracising myself with an unpopular opinion, I found this one sickly sweet in its sentimentality, corny in places and too unrealistic (and that’s before we get to the talking fig tree).

The idea that two people who have had 𝐧𝐨 contact for 25 years are emotionally and physically intimate within 24h of meeting again is ludicrous… or am I a huge cynic? 

Surprisingly, for someone who really does not like magical realism, I didn’t mind the sections narrated by the fig tree and found the nature writing the most enjoyable. The ending was a step too far though and rather than bring tears to my eyes, it was an eye roll nah. 

On reflection, I think the combination of flavours I don’t like (magical realism, romance, Ada’s chapters reading like YA) meant this was probably never going to be to my taste.