The Island of Missing Trees: Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Of The Year Award

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMENS PRIZE 2022 A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICKSHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021A rich magical new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World - now a top 10 Sunday Times bestsellerTwo 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 Adas 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.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