The Island of Missing Trees

I absolutely loved The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. It was so different from books that I've read recently - or perhaps ever. I highly recommend this one but with several caveats.

The overall basis of the story is conflict and war in Cyprus, a place I realize now that I didn't know that much about. So if trauma and war isn't something you like to read about, this might not be for you.

(It's also a coming of age story, a story about loss, love, family connections, history.)

A young Greek Cypriot meets a young Turkish Cypriot in a very divided island. They fall in love and pursue a relationship, difficult to do with such hatred between the two "sides." Their secret liaisons take place in a tavern called The Happy Fig.

There's (obviously) a fig tree not only at the tavern but inside. This fig tree, now transplanted to England, is one of the narrators to the story. So if you don't like inanimate narrators, this might not be for you. The fig shares not only her story but more information than you can imagine about trees, and fig trees, and nature than you can imagine! So if botany and nature isn't your thing, this might not be for you.

Yet... I loved it! 

Very early in the book, the fig tree (located in England) is being buried for the winter. I have heard so many stories over the years about my husband and his brothers being tasked with burying their father's fig tree just one winter when the father wasn't able to. And that story didn't end well. I'm not really a tree person. Imagine the love and dedication that is required to maintain a tree that needs such care, to be buried in the winter in cold climates and then dug up again in the spring. The Island of Missing Trees allowed me to understand how that might happen, especially when part of the immigrant experience.

There's also the question of inherited familial trauma, something that I think about with regards to my family from time to time. This book gave me a tremendous amount to think about.

Elif Shafak has a wonderful way with language and this tale was so creatively told.