---
product_id: 513559377
title: "The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel"
price: "NT$1691"
currency: TWD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.tw/products/513559377-the-island-of-missing-trees-a-novel
store_origin: TW
region: Taiwan
---

# The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel

**Price:** NT$1691
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel
- **How much does it cost?** NT$1691 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tw](https://www.desertcart.tw/products/513559377-the-island-of-missing-trees-a-novel)

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## Description

desertcart.com: The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel: 9781635579796: Shafak, Elif: Books

Review: An exceptional read - From the first page this book casts an enchantment. It is not a fantasy despite some parts told to us through the eyes of a tree. Instead it is a drama, a romance, a retelling of a terrible time on a beautiful island, a story about war, about people both young and old and a book that gives insight into cultural differences carried too far. How can it do all this? I don’t know. Maybe it is magic, magic created by an author with a lyrical bent and a desire to talk about a time on Cyprus when differences broke hearts and mayhap still do. You might also ask how can a tree have such an effect on our reader hearts and souls and again I don’t know. Perhaps that is what a true story teller is supposed to do. You can’t help but admire an author who can step aside and allow her story to be told by something that has lived and seen our human behaviour with neutrality. After all Elif Shabaka does the rest with such wonderful emotion that we realise differences are something to be revered and not used against each other.
Review: An unusual novel with moments of beauty - At its heart, this book is a tale about an enduring love between a Greek Cypriot boy and a Turkish Cypriot girl at a time such a relationship was not just impossible but mortally dangerous—a love which is pursued, then lost and pursued again. Another important player in their relationship is their daughter, who is introduced early on, born and raised in London, who, with her father, is suffering from the rent untimely death of her mother, his wife. The dual storylines of the couple’s love, and their daughter’s life in contemporary London, is frequently interrupted by a lengthy interlude narrated by a fig tree in the garden of the London home where the father and daughter live. It proved to me to be a literary device that I found ridiculous and distracting, although the historical and botanical information provided by the fig tree’s narration was usually interesting and often fascinating—it was just too hard to suspend disbelief to not find the tree’s narration jarring. Despite my problem with a tree as a narrator, I found the author’s language to be beautiful and strongly evocative of the scenery, climate and society of that gorgeous and troubled island. And her characters were so vividly drawn you felt like you knew them personally. If you can suspend disbelief and accept a fig tree as a narrator, this book is highly recommended.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #9,889 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #51 in Cultural Heritage Fiction #153 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books) #767 in Literary Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (26,936) |
| Dimensions  | 5.4 x 1 x 8.15 inches |
| ISBN-10  | 1635579791 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1635579796 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 368 pages |
| Publication date  | February 28, 2023 |
| Publisher  | Bloomsbury Publishing |

## Images

![The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81vi2LnSDuL.jpg)
![The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513siICc4QL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An exceptional read
*by B***S on March 19, 2022*

From the first page this book casts an enchantment. It is not a fantasy despite some parts told to us through the eyes of a tree. Instead it is a drama, a romance, a retelling of a terrible time on a beautiful island, a story about war, about people both young and old and a book that gives insight into cultural differences carried too far. How can it do all this? I don’t know. Maybe it is magic, magic created by an author with a lyrical bent and a desire to talk about a time on Cyprus when differences broke hearts and mayhap still do. You might also ask how can a tree have such an effect on our reader hearts and souls and again I don’t know. Perhaps that is what a true story teller is supposed to do. You can’t help but admire an author who can step aside and allow her story to be told by something that has lived and seen our human behaviour with neutrality. After all Elif Shabaka does the rest with such wonderful emotion that we realise differences are something to be revered and not used against each other.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An unusual novel with moments of beauty
*by E***R on July 29, 2024*

At its heart, this book is a tale about an enduring love between a Greek Cypriot boy and a Turkish Cypriot girl at a time such a relationship was not just impossible but mortally dangerous—a love which is pursued, then lost and pursued again. Another important player in their relationship is their daughter, who is introduced early on, born and raised in London, who, with her father, is suffering from the rent untimely death of her mother, his wife. The dual storylines of the couple’s love, and their daughter’s life in contemporary London, is frequently interrupted by a lengthy interlude narrated by a fig tree in the garden of the London home where the father and daughter live. It proved to me to be a literary device that I found ridiculous and distracting, although the historical and botanical information provided by the fig tree’s narration was usually interesting and often fascinating—it was just too hard to suspend disbelief to not find the tree’s narration jarring. Despite my problem with a tree as a narrator, I found the author’s language to be beautiful and strongly evocative of the scenery, climate and society of that gorgeous and troubled island. And her characters were so vividly drawn you felt like you knew them personally. If you can suspend disbelief and accept a fig tree as a narrator, this book is highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Mesmerizing Read
*by M***R on August 21, 2025*

This book was an unexpected find. The author brilliantly weaves together a tragic love story on a divided island full of its own tragedies. She is Turkish and he is Greek and the people on the island are at war. The story is full of complex characters, beautifully written prose, so stunning that some paragraphs need to be read over and over again. But the real storyteller is a Fig Tree! This book educated me about the horrific history of this tiny Mediterranean island, and is a book I shall never forget. I can’t wait to see what this authors writes next - a truly gifted writer.

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*Product available on Desertcart Taiwan*
*Store origin: TW*
*Last updated: 2026-03-22*