Island of Missing Trees, The

  4 Reviews

Hidden beneath the tree that grows through the roof of The Happy Fig taverna, teenagers Kosta and Defne happily ignore the social prohibitions of their respective Greek and Turkish communities, until Civil war breaks out, in 1974.

Reunited decades later, they migrate to London to fashion a new life, but for their daughter Ada, the toll of intergenerational trauma demands answers from the past.

Lyrical, haunting and thought-provoking, this is the story of Cyprus' tumultuous history traced through the lives of a single family and revealing the devastation to its people and the natural world.

Comments from BDS Reviewers

"I was hooked from the first page. Beautifully written!"

"Shafak is a wonderful storyteller. This novel will stay with me in the same way The Book Thief has - a lyrical, haunting read."

"This is a stand-out book amongst others."

"I enjoyed it so much I'm off to reserve a table at our local Cypriot restaurant!"

"I enjoyed learning about the politics of Cyprus."

"The narrator is most unusual, but overall the book's a winner."

Reviews

AUCK 449

13-09-2023

We loved this book. Great story, well-written. The history of Cyprus was so interesting.

AUCK 422

01-09-2023

We felt that this book was prose driven rather than plot driven. But the setting in Cyprus in 1974 we found very interesting, as somehow the history of this island has not really impacted on us in NZ.

AUCK 218

21-08-2023

The majority liked or loved this book.

TEHORO 002

13-07-2023

Overall we enjoyed this book and several of us will search for other titles by the author. It revived memories about the Cyprus conflict and it was so good to understand more. We liked the mixture of history and story, the fictionalising of actual events. Some loved the idea of the fig, others not so much.