Texas Hold'em for iPad
Games and Entertainment
App
★★★ Start your poker career and hone your skills in 7 amazing casinos with online multiplayer...
ClareR (5603 KP) rated The Island of Missing Trees in Books
Sep 28, 2021
There’s a feel of Romeo and Juliet about this: a Greek-Cypriot boy (Kostas), and a Turkish-Cypriot girl (Defne) fall in love - something forbidden in the climate they’re living in. They meet in secret in a tavern that has a fig tree growing through the centre of it. This is a significant tree - it’s one of the main narrators of this story. And what a story it has to tell. It talks about the natural world in which it lives, the humans that it comes into contact with, the conflict it lives through, the sorrow, the loss.
This book describes the fracturing of a country, people forced to leave the country they love. Kostas is one of these people. He moves to London to live with his uncle, but he never seems to feel as though he fits in in there. He does follow his passion though, and becomes an expert in Natural History: the trees and plants around him, around the world, and in his native Cyprus. Which is what brings him and Defne back together, and reunites them with the fig tree.
The three of them return to London together, all cast adrift from their homeland.
Later, Kostas and Defne’s daughter carries this feeling of not quite belonging as well, but her father doesn’t seem to be able to give her what she needs. She knows nothing of her roots: she has no contact with her Cypriot family - until the day her aunt arrives.
The way that Shafak writes about loss and the pain of loss is visceral, but there’s a great deal of hope and the promise of healing. This book just has it all. I was completely enveloped in this story, and I’ve been left with a pressing need to read everything else that Elif Shafak has written!
Many thanks to Jellybooks and Penguin for providing me with a copy of this book to read.
The Evolution of Fear
Book
Claymore Straker is a fugitive with a price on his head. Wanted by the CIA for acts of terrorism he...
Stolen: Escape from Syria
Book
In the middle of one of the worst civil wars in Syria's history, Louise Monaghan crossed a heavily...
Haute Spaces: Bars & Clubs
Book
This series consists of the most luxurious, eye-catching and unique interiors that cover...
Find Me Bucky
Food & Drink and Reference
App
Wreck the Hoose Juice, the creators of World Buckfast Day brings you the Find Me Bucky app, the...
Javelin Boys: Air Defence from the Cold War to Confrontation
Book
The Gloster Javelin was the UK's first line of night and all-weather air defence both at home and in...
A Baker's Life: 100 Fantastic Recipes, from My Childhood Favourites to Five-Star Perfection
Book
A slice of Paul Hollywood, from baker's son to celebrity chef, with the recipes that have meant the...
10 Greatest Ships of the Royal Navy
Book
For more than 150 years it was the world's most powerful force: between victory at Trafalgar in 1805...
The ENTERTAINER
Lifestyle and Shopping
App
The ENTERTAINER brings you unbeatable value with thousands of Buy One Get One Free offers for...