Play Book Tag discussion

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
5 stars

I loved this book! It was a wonderful story about family, history, struggle, and love.

I admit I do not know much about Cyprus. If you would have asked me before I read this book, I probably would have told you have Cyprus was a Greek island (perhaps the story of Aphrodite influenced this?). Turns out, it is actually its own country off the coast of Turkey. Who knew?

Know what else I didn't know? That Cyprus is divided between Greeks and Turks -- physically by the green line, politically, religiously. Civil unrest and violence was a hallmark of the 70s.

In fair Cyprus, we lay our scene.

Greek Kostas and Turkish Defne meet as teenagers and, despite all odds against them, they fall in love. Life takes a circuitous path, but it is clear from the first pages that they eventually make it to London with their daughter Ada, but now 16 year old Ada is grieving the death of her mother.

We learn the stories of Kostas and Defne, the story of Ada, and the story of Cyprus. The story is narrated from the perspective of a fig tree that has been witness to it all.

I just loved this story. The vivid storytelling. The flawed yet relatable characters. Even the heartbreaking tragedies. The story often doubled back on itself, tying together seemingly unrelated points until the full story was revealed.

I loved the novel, too! It's memorable, isn't it?

I also knew none of that history before reading the book. I came to love It do much more after my book group discussed it together.