Shortlisted for The British Book Awards 2023 Pageturner Book of the Year
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022
Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2021
Two teenagers,a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot,meet at a taverna on the island they both call home.
The taverna is the only place that Kostas and Defne can meet in secret,hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic and chilli peppers,creeping honeysuckle,and in the centre,growing through a cavity in the roof,a fig tree.
The fig tree witnesses their hushed,happy meetings; their silent,surreptitious departures. The fig tree is there,too,when war breaks out,when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble,when the teenagers vanish.
Decades later,Kostas returns - a botanist,looking for native species - looking,really,for Defne. The two lovers return to the taverna to take a clipping from the fig tree and smuggle it into their suitcase,bound for London.
Years later,the fig tree in the garden is their daughter Ada's only knowledge of a home she has never visited,as she seeks to untangle years of secrets and silence,and find her place in the world.
The Island of Missing Trees is a rich,magical tale of belonging and identity,love and trauma,nature and renewal,from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.
Publisher: Penguin Books LtdISBN: 9780241988725Number of pages: 368Weight: 259 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 22 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Simply magnificent,a truly captivating work of immense power and beauty,on the essence of life and its end'- Philippe Sands on 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
'A rich,sensual novel... This is a novel that gives voice to the invisible,the untouchable,the abused and the damaged,weaving their painful songs into a thing of beauty'- Financial Times on 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
'Elif Shafak's extraordinary 10 Minutes,38 Seconds in this Strange World is a work of brutal beauty and consummate tenderness'- Simon Schama on 10 Minutes,38 Seconds in this Strange World
'One of the best writers in the world today'- Hanif Kureishi
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