--- product_id: 513559377 title: "The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel" price: "€ 40.54" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.gr/products/513559377-the-island-of-missing-trees-a-novel store_origin: GR region: Greece --- # The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel **Price:** € 40.54 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** € 40.54 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.gr](https://www.desertcart.gr/products/513559377-the-island-of-missing-trees-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK Winner of the 2022 BookTube Silver Medal in Fiction * Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction "A wise novel of love and grief, roots and branches, displacement and home, faith and belief. Balm for our bruised times." -David Mitchell, author of Utopia Avenue A rich, magical new novel on belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, 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. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he's searching for lost love. Years later a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited--- her only connection to her family's troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world. A moving, beautifully written, and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history, and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak's best work yet. Review: Moving, deep, courageous - What a soulful book. I had the fortune to read it on yet another island that is close to my heart, also full of fig trees, bees, flowers, and incredible beauty. Shafaz does not shy away from hard truths but wraps them in a blanket of love, which allows the reader to enter the difficulties of the story, the pain and suffering of her characters, including the animated voice of the tree at the heart of the book, and saving us from too much despair over what humans are capable of with the redemptive qualities of different forms of love and hope. Review: Really really good… - I never thought I would enjoy a story of how trees view humanity with our foibles, squabbles, quarrels, wars, hatreds, loves…. But this was amazing. Part historical novel about the partition of Cyprus and the violence around that, part coming of age story in a time of grief, part nature study about trees and fauna and how intertwined they are with our culture and existence, this book was an exploration of what it means to be a survivor that bears the marks of past trauma and what it means to keep moving forward. This novel focuses on the love story of Kostas and Defne, star-crossed Greek and Turkish Cypriot lovers whose devotion to each other is tested by the violent conflict that emerges in 1974. Despite their commitment to putting the past behind them and moving forward, years later, their teen daughter Ada’s breakdown in the middle of a history class brings past traumas once again to the fore. This is my first book by this author and I’m not sure how she accomplished a book that was simultaneously heartbreaking and healing, how she managed to make the reader feel part of the story even though we were jumping timelines and perspectives between the tree, the characters, the plot versus the tree’s commentary…. It was brilliant and incredibly well-executed. I think the thing that makes this a little less than 4 stars for me is the inevitable fact that I could have done with a little more character development and a little more connective plot… I wanted more Ada, more Meryem, more Kostas… even more Defne… this was a very introspective sort of book where the characters often felt very isolated and the story mainly existed in their thoughts and reflections. For a book such as this that speaks to the interconnectedness and community of Cypriot people and more broadly of the interconnectedness of humanity and nature, the characters had little dialogue with each other and for me that would have been an opportunity to get to know them better. I recognize and the author points out (through the omniscient fig tree) that in reality unlike in fiction, we rarely know everything about characters or have the complete tale with all plot holes filled, rather we have bits and pieces of story, hints and allusions, gaps we have to fill in ourselves and information we have to content ourselves with never knowing, and this book feels very much like that. And I can accept this argument, but that left so much unsaid in the book (as it often is in life, but in a book you want to see it said- tangent: I also find it difficult to accept that Meryem came to stay in Kostas’ house and they never have a proper conversation that we can observe). That said this is so beautifully written. The proverbs and aphorisms are so apt, the reflections on human experiences of conflict, survival, migration, trauma, healing and what it means to be far from home spoke for anyone who has ever experienced the out-of-body feeling of trying to feel at home and at peace in a situation which is far from that. I found myself highlighting swathes of this book and I know it’s one I won’t forget soon. I plan to check out more books by this author. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #9,401 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #23 in Cultural Heritage Fiction #224 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction #838 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 27,610 Reviews | ## Images ![The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81vi2LnSDuL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Moving, deep, courageous *by G***S on May 26, 2026* What a soulful book. I had the fortune to read it on yet another island that is close to my heart, also full of fig trees, bees, flowers, and incredible beauty. Shafaz does not shy away from hard truths but wraps them in a blanket of love, which allows the reader to enter the difficulties of the story, the pain and suffering of her characters, including the animated voice of the tree at the heart of the book, and saving us from too much despair over what humans are capable of with the redemptive qualities of different forms of love and hope. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Really really good… *by J***I on July 22, 2024* I never thought I would enjoy a story of how trees view humanity with our foibles, squabbles, quarrels, wars, hatreds, loves…. But this was amazing. Part historical novel about the partition of Cyprus and the violence around that, part coming of age story in a time of grief, part nature study about trees and fauna and how intertwined they are with our culture and existence, this book was an exploration of what it means to be a survivor that bears the marks of past trauma and what it means to keep moving forward. This novel focuses on the love story of Kostas and Defne, star-crossed Greek and Turkish Cypriot lovers whose devotion to each other is tested by the violent conflict that emerges in 1974. Despite their commitment to putting the past behind them and moving forward, years later, their teen daughter Ada’s breakdown in the middle of a history class brings past traumas once again to the fore. This is my first book by this author and I’m not sure how she accomplished a book that was simultaneously heartbreaking and healing, how she managed to make the reader feel part of the story even though we were jumping timelines and perspectives between the tree, the characters, the plot versus the tree’s commentary…. It was brilliant and incredibly well-executed. I think the thing that makes this a little less than 4 stars for me is the inevitable fact that I could have done with a little more character development and a little more connective plot… I wanted more Ada, more Meryem, more Kostas… even more Defne… this was a very introspective sort of book where the characters often felt very isolated and the story mainly existed in their thoughts and reflections. For a book such as this that speaks to the interconnectedness and community of Cypriot people and more broadly of the interconnectedness of humanity and nature, the characters had little dialogue with each other and for me that would have been an opportunity to get to know them better. I recognize and the author points out (through the omniscient fig tree) that in reality unlike in fiction, we rarely know everything about characters or have the complete tale with all plot holes filled, rather we have bits and pieces of story, hints and allusions, gaps we have to fill in ourselves and information we have to content ourselves with never knowing, and this book feels very much like that. And I can accept this argument, but that left so much unsaid in the book (as it often is in life, but in a book you want to see it said- tangent: I also find it difficult to accept that Meryem came to stay in Kostas’ house and they never have a proper conversation that we can observe). That said this is so beautifully written. The proverbs and aphorisms are so apt, the reflections on human experiences of conflict, survival, migration, trauma, healing and what it means to be far from home spoke for anyone who has ever experienced the out-of-body feeling of trying to feel at home and at peace in a situation which is far from that. I found myself highlighting swathes of this book and I know it’s one I won’t forget soon. I plan to check out more books by this author. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Island of Missing Trees touched me deeply *by B***C on June 15, 2025* This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in years. It’s one of those books to be read slowly and tasted rather than devoured quickly. It’s a love story that encompasses many people, nature, and different cultures. The writing is exquisite, the feelings it evokes are deep and sometimes painful. I’ve thanked the person who recommended it to me many times, and now I’m recommending it to you. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel - There Are Rivers in the Sky: A novel - The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.gr/products/513559377-the-island-of-missing-trees-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.gr/products/513559377-the-island-of-missing-trees-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Greece* *Store origin: GR* *Last updated: 2026-05-30*