The Island of Missing Trees

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 07 April 2022
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Themes

 Grief     •         Race     •      War

Synopsis

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022

Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Of The Year Award

A rich, magical novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World - now a top ten Sunday Times bestseller.

It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic, chilli peppers and wild herbs.

This is where one can find the best food in town, the best music, the best wine. But there is something else to the place: it makes one forget, even if for just a few hours, the world outside and its immoderate sorrows. In the centre of the tavern, growing through a cavity in the roof, is a fig tree.

This tree will witness their hushed, happy meetings, their silent, surreptitious departures; and the tree will be there when the war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to rubble, when the teenagers vanish and break apart.

Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada Kazantzakis has never visited the island where her parents were born. Desperate for answers, she seeks to untangle years of secrets, separation and silence.

The only connection she has to the land of her ancestors is a Ficus Carica growing in the back garden of their home. The Island of Missing Trees is a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature, and, finally, renewal. 

Weight: 266g
Dimension: 129 x 197 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780241988725

About Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is the prolific, prize-winning writer who has published 19 books, including The Island of Missing Trees, The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.

Born in Strasbourg in France, the Turkish-British novelist will often feature the bustling city of Istanbul in her writing. Of her Istanbul settings, Elif Shafak takes inspiration from the city's cosmopolitan nature to depict melting pot concepts that sees the East and West commingle.

Shafak is a forthright feminist, and addresses issues about gender diversity, the repression and empowerment of girls and women.

She is a PhD holder in political science and regular contributor to many international publications. Her books have been translated in 55 languages giving her books global reach and appeal.

She lives in London is and often published by Penguin Random House.