Te Reo Māori
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Te Reo Māori is a Māori language dictionary that is easy to use by searching for Māori or English...
A Year in a Ditch
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Of Cuban origin, the Havanese is a rare blend of personality, smarts, and good looks--the epitome of...
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Philadelphia native Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) is recognized as one of the founding figures of...
ClareR (5721 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.
Earthquake+ | Alert,Map & Info
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Custom Alerts and Custom Filter are now available FREE of charge!!! •••• More than 50,000...
LEXI24 Visual Dictionary
Reference and Education
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LEXI24’s Visual Dictionary goes above and beyond your typical language learning aid. The new...