The Island of Missing Trees

A Novel

By: Elif Shafak

Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Amira Ghazalla

Bloomsbury presents The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, read by Daphne Kouma and Amira Ghazalla.

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
Winner of the 2022 BookTube Silver Medal in Fiction * Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction

"A wise novel of love and grief, roots and branches, displacement and home, faith and belief. Balm for our bruised times." —David Mitchell, author of Utopia Avenue

A rich, magical new novel on belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he’s searching for lost love.

Years later a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited—- her only connection to her family’s troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world.

A moving, beautifully written, and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history, and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak’s best work yet.©2021 Elif Shafak (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Really great!

Both voice actors were really fantastic in regards to all aspects.
I loved the story too — the shifting in time frames, the fig tree narrator. Everything.
An easy listen, deep concentration definitely not needed.

Such a Unique & Absorbing Story!

Loved both the story & performance of this book. An interesting, unique tale (with basis in historical and current events). I really enjoyed how the author wove nature, war, and love together. The only issue I had was that sometimes the accents are a bit hard to understand but felt like that added to the mystique at the same time.

A deeply beautiful story.

I liked the way humans, plants and animals were discussed by the fig tree and acted out among the humans characters within an historical time frame.

Wrapped within its roots and branches, I am reborn

Elements of history, love, social commentary, cuisine and most of all wisdom from nature combine to create a brilliant story I began again, upon completing my first read through. Thank you Elif Shafak. Poetry might meet the requirements of a review; I am no poet.

Brilliantly written

A lovely and moving tribute to love lost and nature’s beauty. A compelling winding of the narrative fig tree’s voice and the main character’s voice. Like a tightly intertwined vine crawling upward, you hang on to the story and grow to love them all!