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The Island of Missing Trees
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma, Amira Ghazalla
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
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The Island of Missing Trees
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Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize 2022
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.
A top 10 Sunday Times best seller.
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.
Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. The taverna is the only place that Kostas and Defne can meet in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic and chilli peppers, creeping honeysuckle, and in the centre, growing through a cavity in the roof, a fig tree. The fig tree witnesses their hushed, happy meetings; their silent, surreptitious departures. The fig tree is there, too, when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns—a botanist, looking for native species—looking, really, for Defne. The two lovers return to the taverna to take a clipping from the fig tree and smuggle it into their suitcase, bound for London. Years later, the fig tree in the garden is their daughter Ada's only knowledge of a home she has never visited, as she seeks to untangle years of secrets and silence, and find her place in the world.
The Island of Missing Trees is a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.
Critic Reviews
"What a wonderful read! This book moved me to tears...in the best way. Powerful and poignant." (Reese Witherspoon)
"One of the best writers in the world today." (Hanif Kureishi)
"Shafak makes a new home for us in words." (Colum McCann)
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What listeners say about The Island of Missing Trees
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anil
- 04-04-22
A wise and beautiful story
I am now a die hard fan of Elif Shafak. What a beautiful production. I now plan to read the book just for fun.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Veena Haridas
- 04-01-24
A heartbreaking story of hope and resilience
What an amazing story! Made absolutely enjoyable with amazing Narrayion. Thank you to the narrators for doing the book, the justice it deserved and Thank you Elia, for telling a story which is still relevant now, and my heart breaks for the people and communities that suffer amidst the war raging
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- daisy
- 30-01-23
amazing
totally loved it, each and every aspect of the book was amazing. highly recommended. must read for people of any interest as this book offers so much.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- shalini r.
- 22-02-24
Just beautiful ! History, love story, mental health, nature - a seamless knitting together of it all
Elif Shafaq is a marvellous storyteller. I have been hooked and have listened to Bastard of Istanbul, 10 minutes 38 seconds, 40 rules of love and now the island of missing trees - this one I felt was her best.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Swati Dey
- 25-08-22
Strikingly Original, A Thing of Beauty
Shafak tells a wonderful tale of love, life, loss, grief, and so much more..... Heartbreaking, yet a triumph of love and the human soul.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Vidhya
- 11-01-23
Beautiful Story that has so much melancholy !
It's a wonderful story rich in history and a very different point of view. The non-linear narration is very intriguing. I initially struggled to move forward but then I'm glad I stuck to it. Great performance by the way. The accents were really fresh and nice.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Akshat Gupta
- 07-08-23
The mesmerising raft of intangible whispers
The trickle down insinuations that this story drags you into is rather inscrutable to put into words. It tickles the cacophonous melodies and epiphanies screens trapped in the unsung mysteries of your brain. You start living a melancholic life that isn’t even yours. And participate in convoluted realities you weren’t part of. Overall it is a well written novel with a charisma of captivating you in a remorseful atrocities and the heartfelt relationships.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Parag
- 27-11-22
Beautiful prose but fragmented story
The first two things that pulled me into the story was it's exquisite prose and excellent narrator.
It's the story of two Cypriot lovers who belonged to warring ethnicities, told in flashback, with their daughter as the primary vehicle for the story to be narrated. If this sounds confusing, it's because the story is narrated through four POVs and three timelines, which, in my opinion was quite confusing.
The book touches on important themes like ethnic conflict, the importance of ecological conservation, lesser known facts about flora and fauna, forbidden love, and the need of a teenager to reconnect with her roots.
However, these are too many themes for one book. Unfortunately, the story is neither able to do full justice to the main theme of conflict nor the story of Costas and Daphne.
Having the fig tree narrate part of the story was a great idea, but would have worked out much better if it's narration was limited to telling the history of Cyprus and the lovers, without giving lessons in botany and zoology.
At about 60% of the book, the meanderings and diversions into the above mentioned lessons made the story drag. I was beginning to lose interest, but I continued purely because I wanted to know how the story ended.
The ending was the better part of the last 40%. It was tender, beautiful, and satisfying in a philosophical way.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- raj
- 13-12-21
amazing story with amazing narrators!
must read... is simply unputdownable. well researched and deeply emotional amazing story with amazing narrators!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- tunali mukherjee
- 20-06-23
stunning.
loved everything about the book... the narrators are wonderful. the story was wonderful. definitely recommend
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