The Island Of Missing Trees (Elif Shafak) | Book Review

Ever read a book that makes you feel – I don’t wanna read it, but at the same time, you are unable to put it down either. A strange feeling of being pulled away and toward at the same time. The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak is the first book that made me feel that way.

So, is this book good? Sure yes! And is this book enjoyable? Well, no – not that every book needs to be. If there is one word that comes to mind having read the book, it probably is “beautiful”, and one feeling – it would be “overwhelming”.

The book is presented in the form of a Fig Tree narrating the story centered in Cyprus amidst the backdrop of a civil war. So basically, you have two tracks running through the book – one of the fig tree talking about itself, it’s own feelings, what all it has been a witness to, and the other about the actual story of one such family affected by the war, the atrocities the people had to deal with and so on. And I think that is the reason for such a divide in the feeling I had for this book.

First what I liked about the book. I feel, what truly keeps the book going is the actual story. An overwhelming love story that bears the consequences of war. And how it makes you realize that a civil war is probably the worst kind of war that there can be – which turns neighbors into enemies thirsty for your blood. It really is thought provoking to think about it for a while – how it would have been for people who actually went through it, and really how lucky we are to be born at this time and this place that we are in. The author decorates the story with some beautiful thoughts. For instance, there are some things that even a well-guarded border cannot prevent crossing – the Etesian wind, the birds, the butterflies, grasshoppers, snails or even a birthday balloon that escapes a child’s grip and drifts in the sky. Or that alluring description of the cycle of belonging and exile described through the metamorphizing of birds into fish. Or how the author explains that though you may leave your native land and go far far beyond, you don’t realise but it had always been following you. Such a wonderful & true thought that.

The story tells the tale of how two people who are deeply in love cannot become one just because they are at opposite ends of the warring ethnic communities. How some of these groups are forced to flee, while some choose to stay back – and the different pain that either of them endure in their own ways. How their souls get tarnished for life. And yet, after 25 years, the two of them come together and complete their love story. The concern of the parents to guard their child from their troubled past and how at the end the author drives the story home with a startling simile between a tree’s girdling & death of Defne. And how she metamorphizes into the fig tree. Truly worth applauding.

A tree narrating the incidents as she (yes, it was a female fig) saw them happen is a nice idea. I quite liked it. How the tree remains the center or an integral part of the entire story – right from germinating in a crack in The Happy Fig tavern, to being relocated to a new country – all this while witness to all happenings – it is an intelligent and thought provoking idea. I dont wish to talk much of what I didn’t like in this wonderful read – would be unjust to do so. Thus, I would just say – a tree for me stands for selflessly serving others – providing shade & fruits; a solid, resolute being that stands it’s ground (remember “We Shall Not Be Moved”?); and in general – a very noble & calm creation of God. Sadly, the depiction of the fig in the book has a tinge of snobbish feel to it & leaves me feeling like a ghost staring at me and observing me – when I now look at a tree. The idea of a tree being relocated or buried for the winters & dug out again in the spring is not that everyone can digest. And not to forget, it may be lusting at you – take that for a cringe thought! I also felt the book had too much detail that could have easily been cut short – I barely skimmed through those parts. But if you can cope up with these few aspects, this is one book that I would easily recommend to read just for it’s story.

More in romance – The Village Shop For Lonely Hearts , Small Pleasures (Clare Chambers)