The New York Times has archived its articles online. Reporter's Notebook: Politeness and Violence Mix in Cyprus, from the July 30, 1974 issue, shares a perspective of the destruction of the war in July of 1974. This is the time period when Kostas is sent to London, Denfe seeks an abortion and The Happy Fig is bombed. Intergenerational Trauma

A rich, magical new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.The former lovers reconnect, and Kostas persuades Defne to join him in London, to start again, to forget what has been. With them, they take a cutting of the old fig tree, which Kostas carefully tends and eventually plants in the garden of their north London home. Alongside the main narrative, the tree speaks, reflects, and offers wisdom about the realities of which humankind cannot bear too much. Redefining Trauma is one first person blog on how the author has worked to understand her own trauma and the importance of de-stigmatizing trauma.

Ever since, Cyprus has been divided, with a United Nations peacekeeping force maintaining a buffer zone between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Adding to the multicultural mix are British military bases still on the island, which used to be part of the British Empire until 1960. Thousands upon thousands of people disappear during conflict. The novel talks about Maria-Fernanda documenting atrocities from the Spanish Civil War and the forensic fieldwork in Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Iraq. In Guatemala a large number of mass graves where political dissidents and indigenous rural Maya communities were buried were discovered in the 1990s. In the novel, the fig tree talks about how people can erase history by not telling the stories of those who have disappeared. Rounded to 5/5. Recommended for readers who enjoy thought-provoking historical fiction that blends together love, loss, and the magic of the natural world.

The poetic writing style that Shafak writes with may not be for all readers. At times, the descriptions can be overly detailed and not central to the story. Yet, one cannot deny the impact of the richness of her writing. The island of the book’s title is Cyprus, where animosities in multiple generations of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots finally rent the landmass asunder in 1974. That year, a Greek military coup tried to unify the island with mainland Greece ( enosis), triggering a Turkish invasion framed by the Turks as a “peace operation.” Thus, people became refugees in their own country. As an accompaniment to reading The Island of Missing Trees, you may find some of the following resources helpful to expand your understanding or your conversation. Environment, Numbness and Time

Turkish-British author Elif Shafak’s new novel, The Island of Missing Trees, revisits some of her favorite themes: nonlinear history, the redemptive power of stories, and immigrants and outsiders. The titular island of the novel is Cyprus, and the story mostly moves between the 2010s and the early 1970s, right around the time when intercommunal violence between the island’s Turkish and Greek communities escalated. At the heart of the novel is a star-crossed couple—Kostas, a Greek Cypriot, and Defne, a Turkish Cypriot. By the time we reach the 2010s, Kostas and Defne are married, have moved to England, and are raising a daughter named Ada (“island” in Turkish), but their past still haunts them. Literature helps open questions that we must addres. The Island of Missing Trees is a novel that asks so many important questions to help us individually and collectively create a better future. It has stopped raining now, and the cafe is closing, so we go out into the fresh air. We’re heading in different directions, but she’s determined to walk me to the park gate. I notice what a good listener she is, her body angled towards mine confidingly. She is a very serious person. It’s not only that she regards it as her political duty to talk of such things as equality and diversity; she seems to relish doing so. But there’s a larky, student-ish side to her, too. Is it true that she loves heavy metal, I ask. Her gentleness seems a bit at odds with headbanging. “Oh, yes,” she says. “I’ve always loved it.” She lists several bands, none of which I’ve heard of. “I like all the sub-genres: industrial, viking…” While she’s working, she listens to the same song over and over, using headphones so her children don’t complain. Crikey. Can she concentrate? “Yes! That’s when I write best. I don’t like silence. It makes me nervous.” Somewhere in the distance, I hear the obliging roar of a motorbike. The title “Island of the Missing Trees” itself is suggestive of the presence of the natural world. It is a tale told by a tree—a fig tree or a once “happy fig” tree. The story opens by taking the readers down the memory lane of a Ficus carica. However, before delving into the story of Kostas and Defne, the fig tree states its purpose: it was going to tell the story of losers, the ones history often forgets to mention.

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Prior to publication, Elif Shafak read sections of The Island of Missing Trees in a Ted Talk If Trees Could Speak. She talks about how numbness is destroying our world as people stop listening, learning and caring about what is happening. It’s a short, insightful video. Cyprus in 1974

In her interview with Inskeep, Shafak talks about how she wanted a narrator that understood about being rooted, uprooted and re-rooted— like an immigrant or a person experiencing displacement would experience that change. And in her interview with de Waal, she talks about how the fig tree helped her tell the story of a place that has extreme ethnic division “without falling into the trap of nationalism as a storyteller.” What secrets have you held on to? How has keeping a secret made an experience or a relationship better? When has keeping a secret led to a deteriorating relationship? What secrets do you believe need to be kept and what secrets do you think should be shared? Intergenerational Trauma and Inherited Pain One way to stop seeing trees, or rivers, or hills, only as ‘natural resources’ is to class them as fellow beings—kinfolk. I guess I’m trying to subjectify the universe, because look where objectifying it has gotten us. To subjectify is not necessarily to co-opt, colonize, exploit. Rather, it may involve a great reach outward of the mind and imagination (16). Booker-shortlisted Shafak ( 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World) amazes with this resonant story of the generational trauma of the Cypriot Civil War * Publishers Weekly *A wonderfully transporting and magical novel that is, at the same time, revelatory about recent history and the natural world and quietly profound’ William Boyd Fig Tree: A fig tree that grew in The Happy Fig on Cyprus and that Kostas regrew in England from a cutting A major factor that makes Elif Shafak a popular contemporary author is her effortless style of writing. Within the garb of what could be said to be an easy read, Shafak manages to explore some heavy themes in her writing, ranging from religion, culture, and social prejudices to history, migration, and trauma. Not filled with literary jargon, the novelist’s writing comes across with a certain ease that allows the readers to identify with it. Cosmopolitanism, the convergence of cultures, the conflict between the East and the West, and the native land constitute some of the predominant and also autobiographical elements that are found in the writings of contemporary writers of Turkish origin. Much like the Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, Shafak too can be hailed as a “chronicler” of culture, which is also reflected in her latest work, “The Island of Missing Trees.”