The Island of Missing Trees

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE 2022. A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK. SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021. A rich, magical new 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.In The Island of Missing Trees, prizewinning author Elif Shafak brings us a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature, and, finally, renewal. ''What a wonderful read! This book moved me to tears... in the best way. Powerful and poignant'' Reese Witherspoon ''A brilliant novel -- one that rings with Shafak''s characteristic compassion for the overlooked and the under-loved, for those whom history has exiled, excluded or separated. I know it will move many readers around the world, as it moved me'' Robert Macfarlanebr' 'A wonderfully transporting and magical novel that is, at the same time, revelatory about recent history and the natural world and quietly profound'' William Boyd ''This is an enchanting, compassionate and wise novel and storytelling at its most sublime'' Polly Samson' 'A wise novel of love and grief, roots and branches, displacement and home, faith and belief. THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES is balm for our bruised times'' David Mitchell' 'An outstanding work of breathtaking beauty'' Lemn Sissay' 'A writer of important, beautiful, painful, truthful novels'' Marian Keyes''Lovely heartbreaker of a novel centered on dark secrets of civil wars; evils of extremism: Cyprus, star-crossed lovers, killed beloveds, damaged kids. Uprootings. (One narrator is a fig tree!)'' Margaret Atwood on Twitter ''Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature'' Ian McEwan>...

Auteur

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-six languages. The author of nineteen books, twelve of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's last novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022
THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK

You don't fall in love in Cyprus in the summer of 1974. Not here, not now.

In 1974, two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided Cyprus, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek, and Defne who is Turkish, can meet in secret, hidden beneath the leaves of a fig tree growing through the roof of the tavern. This tree will witness their hushed happy meetings, and will be there when the war breaks out and the teenagers vanish.

Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada has never visited the island where her parents were born. She seeks to untangle years of her family's silence, but the only connection she has to the land of her ancestors Is a fig tree growing tin the garden of their home . . .

'This book moved me to tears . . . in the best way. Powerful and poignant' Reese Witherspoon

'A brilliant novel -- one that rings with Shafak's characteristic compassion' Robert Macfarlane

'This is an enchanting, compassionate and wise novel and storytelling at its most sublime' Polly Samson

* ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW *