#the island of missing trees

[darlingvita]

Elif Shafak, The Island of Missing Trees

[saltwaterandstars]

JOMP BPC - 20th December - Set in a country other than yours

The Island of Missing Trees is partly set in Cyprus during the time that led up to and followed the division of the island into Turkish Northern Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus. It's also partly set in London, so I'm 50% cheating :-)

[goodlittlegoddess]

“Pain, there was so much pain everywhere and in everyone. The only difference was between those who managed to hide it and those who no longer could.”

— Elif Shafak, from The Island of Missing Trees

[mythoughttherapy]

“People assume it’s a matter of personality, the difference between optimists and pessimists. But I believe it all comes down to an inability to forget. The greater your powers of retention, the slimmer your chances at optimism.”

—Elif Shafak, The Island of Missing Trees

[the-life-of-a-christopagan]

The book I’m reading is really good but it keeps slandering Aphrodite for no good reason???

[andreabadgley]

Book and a snuggle.

[farfadetfarfelu]

The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafak is my new lover, my new favourite colour, and my new favourite song. I loved that book so much, it's quite painful it's now over

[mmrsmagic]

People assume it’a a matter of personality, the difference between optimists and pessimists. But I believe it all comes down to an inability to forget. The greater your powers of retention, the slimmer your chances at optimism.

Elif Shafak - The Island of Missing Trees

[joebloggshere]

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

What an amazing book. I started it and worried that it was going to be a case of disappointment after the hype, but once I got into it, well, I was hooked.

Anyone that reads these posts will know that I really love learning through literature and this book ticks all the boxes: I learnt about the the civil war in Cyprus in the 1970s and I learnt about the current research into what we believe trees are capable of.

The book is a strange mixture of stories, all tied together in one way or another and although very distressing at times, definitely ends on an optimistic note, or two!

Highly recommend.

[kirbyandcake]

"Anyone who expects love to be sensible has perhaps never loved."

—Elif Shafak, The Island of Missing Trees

[fiction-quotes]

Because in real life, unlike in history books, stories come to us not in their entirety but in bits and pieces, broken segments and partial echoes, a full sentence here, a fragment there, a clue hidden in between. In life, unlike in books, we have to weave our stories out of threads as fine as the gossamer veins that run through a butterfly's wings.

  —  The Island of Missing Trees (Elif Shafak)

[starlettisketches]

Fake signing event poster I made for uni based on Eli Shafak’s book “The Island of Missing Trees” (which is a beautiful book btw pls read it)

[waywordsstudio]

𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘀" 𝗯𝘆 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗳 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗳𝗮𝗸 -

Shafak's mystical/botanical/fantastic narrator presides over a generations-suffering Cyprus full of complexities in politics and personalities. A terrific premise is somewhat compromised by a weaker human drama undermined by a more omniscient vision.

[thequietesthing]

Anyone who expects love to be sensible has perhaps never loved.

Elif Shafak (The Island of Missing Trees)

Mary Oliver, from a poem titled "March," featured in White Pine: Poems & Prose Poems

[mythoughttherapy]

“The human mind was the strangest place, both home and exile.”

—Elif Shafak, The Island of Missing Trees

[sandwich2451]

THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES ★★★☆☆

i dont quite know what to make of this book. the concept i lover - the fig tree's perspectives? really cool, especially because the tree is this allseeing narrator as far as their vision goes, but their actual vision is very limited; what i mesn to say is that they can hear all the animals and people and plants, but only those that come to it. there's some symbolism in there, i feel it.

one thing that bothered me a lot is that the philosophizing felt kinda forced? like its a literary novel so the deepness is expected but i felt like it was very in your face and couldve been done with more subtelty. similarly the writing felt stilted at times.