The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

Rating: ★★★★☆

I started reading this book in June and, even though I was enjoying it, life happened and I started reading very infrequently. I feel like this is a cycle that happens every year: in the beginning of the year I read a lot, during winter, and spring. Then summer comes and I stop reading.

After taking around 6 months to read this book, I do recommend it. It is a very intricate, romantic, true, earthy, book that depicts the story of two loved ones in Cyprus. The story is quite complex and tells a lot about the Cyprus dispute, which I did not know much about.

Here are some citations:

I am a Ficus carica, known as the edible common fig, though I can assure you there’s nothing common about me.

They know, deep within, that when you save a fig tree from a storm, it is someone’s memory you are saving.

I know what you are thinking. How could I, an ordinary Ficus carica, possibly be in love with a Homo sapiens? I get it, I’m no beauty.

Adam and Eve yielded to the allure of a fig, the fruit of temptation, desire and passion, not some crunchy apple.

And some even believe that if you circle a fig tree seven times while burning incense and uttering the right words in the right order, you can change the sex attributed to you at birth.

Thousands of eyes peered from the leaves, eyes made up of tiny light detectors, discerning different wavelengths, clashing realities, reminding Kostas that the world humans saw was only one of many available.

“You mean it burns digital incense, sprinkles digital salt and spits in the air digitally?”

Humans lose focus easily. Immersed in their politics and conflicts, they get sidetracked, and that is when diseases and pandemics run rampant.

• 📕 Title The Island of Missing Trees
• ✍️ Author Elif Shafak
• 📄 Pages 356
• 📚 Publisher Penguin Books
• 🪪 ISBN 9780241988725