Review of "The Island of Missing Trees" by Elif Shafak.

 

        Gripping, Magical, Sensational

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Historical with elements of Fantasy, Romance and Colonialism, this novel is of Romantic genre set in The Cyprus Island. It revolves around the love story of Kostas and Defne who belong to two different nations and religions, but their hearts become one. Initially, the lovers were only afraid of their nation and religion differences, but things become complicated when a war sparked in between their nations. Cyprus was bathing in Greek and Turkish blood, and clouds of uncertainty were looming upon the lovers' heads. What happened to their love story? Read the novel to find out. 

Kostas Kazantzakis was a Greek Cypriot and a botanist who loved trees and nature with all his might. As a teenager, Kostas fell in love with Defne, a Turkish Cypriot. Their love bloomed under nature, and trees hid the love from the world. Their magical meetings continued in a Tavern where a Fig tree witnessed their love. Standing there, gazing and feeling all the love of the teenagers, Fig tree was also the witness of their losses. It, too, had a story to tell, and its story is worth listening to. 

Fig tree's point of view has also been added and it will take you into the magical world of nature. A fig had witnessed two teenager's love and loss journey, and a fig tree also had witnessed another teenager's mental and family dilemmas. One Fig was in the Tavern of Cyprus in the 1970s, and another Fig was in an England house in 2010. One Fig witnessed the happiness and gloominess of Cypriots, and another Fig had witnessed the after effects of a Civil War. The Fig had witnessed the dilemmas of Ada, a teenager in England whose family past was haunting her. 

The novel basically revolves around the story of loss: loss of identity. It reveals the horrors of the Civil War and its impact on the generations of sufferers. It reveals the pain of immigrants who have to cut off their roots in order to adjust into the new environment. It points out how generations suffer because of their ancestors' mistakes and pain. It highlights the dilemmas of teenage life. 

The most interesting thing in this novel is the point of view of "Fig Tree". Tales of Fig Tree, its point of view and its way of seeing things add the elements of Fantasy into the novel. Kostas' research on the trees is unique, and it gives you an insight into how nature works and helps human beings. It tells us how we can learn from nature. It also gives us an overview of how animals and plants suffer because of human beings. It gives us the message that not only humans suffer in the war, but nature and animals too. Elif Shafak has done a fantastic job in writing Fig tree's point of view. 

Some interesting and beautiful snippets from this novel are:

Human time is linear, a neat continuum from a past that is supposed to be over and done with towards a future deemed to be untouched, untarnished.

In the most surprising ways, the victims continued to live, because that is what nature did to death, it transformed abrupt endings into a thousand new beginnings. 

Every few decades they (humans) sway into a zone of unbridled optimism and insist on seeing things through a rosy filter, only to be challenged and shaken by events and catapulted back into their habitual apathy and listless indifference. 

But if you are going to claim, as humans do, to be superior to all life forms, past and present, then you must gain an understanding of the oldest living organisms on Earth who were here long before you arrived and will still be here after you have gone. 

At the end of the day, we all remember for the same reason we try to forget: to survive in a world that neither understands nor values us. 

Was it also possible to inherit something as intangible and immeasurable as sorrow? 

The last quote is also a main theme and question which Elif Shafak tried to answer in this novel. Do read the novel to find out the answer.

I have mentioned some of my favorite quotations and lines from the novel. But, still there are a lot of lines which are my favorite and are not included here. All the chapters of "Fig Tree" are my favorite in the novel as they contain unique information about the ecosystem and plants. 

The book is highly recommended! Do read it yourself and share your reviews with me.