SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2022 A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK SHORTLISTED FOR THE
COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021 A rich magical novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes
38 Seconds in this Strange World - now a top ten Sunday Times bestseller It is 1974 on the
island of Cyprus. Two teenagers from opposite sides of a divided land meet at a tavern in the
city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas who is Greek and Christian
and Defne who is Turkish and Muslim can meet in secret hidden beneath the blackened beams
from which hang garlands of garlic chilli peppers and wild herbs. This is where one can find
the best food in town the best music the best wine. But there is something else to the place:
it makes one forget even if for just a few hours the world outside and its immoderate
sorrows. In the centre of the tavern growing through a cavity in the roof is a fig tree. This
tree will witness their hushed happy meetings their silent surreptitious departures and the
tree will be there when the war breaks out when the capital is reduced to rubble when the
teenagers vanish and break apart. Decades later in north London sixteen-year-old Ada
Kazantzakis has never visited the island where her parents were born. Desperate for answers
she seeks to untangle years of secrets separation and silence. The only connection she has to
the land of her ancestors is a Ficus Carica growing in the back garden of their home. The
Island of Missing Trees is a rich magical tale of belonging and identity love and trauma
nature and finally renewal. 'This book moved me to tears . . . in the best way. Powerful and
poignant' Reese Witherspoon 'A brilliant novel -- one that rings with Shafak's characteristic
compassion' Robert Macfarlane 'This is an enchanting compassionate and wise novel and
storytelling at its most sublime' Polly Samson
