#TheIslandOfMissingTrees #ElifShafak #BookRecommendation #LoveAndLoss #CulturalIdentity #ImmigrantStories #NatureAndMemory #MustReadBooks. "In the end love wins". Don’t we all hope and wish for this to happen? For me, not only is the story of this book a triumph over my heart, but Elif Shafak herself—her storytelling is methodical, poetic, and full of camaraderie. She is a storyteller everyone deserves to read. And this time, the magic has been spilled with The Island of Missing Trees. This is a story of the partition of hearts—not just by distance but by land. When you leave a place so close to your heart, that holds your golden, loving memories, you find it very hard to move from that place. You tend to carry things with you as memories, as souvenirs. So, when Kostas and Defne made the decision to move to a new land for love, they decided to take something from their own divided land. They took a sapling of their own fig tree—the tree that was a living witness to their unforgettable love story. Not only their love story but also the story of the owners of the café, Yiorgos and Yusuf, who ran The Happy Fig. The book will tell you so much about love in all its different forms. The story will lead you to see how camaraderie between the two communities was once held in high esteem and how that turned the whole land to bloodshed, turning your loving, trusted neighborhood into your first enemies. But at the same time, there are parts where they don't want their new generation in a new land to feel the burden of their past. Kostas, from the Greek community, and Defne, from the Turkish community, were both young teenagers deeply in love. But no one foresaw how ruthless their land would become, nor did they see what the future held for them. What they both wanted was to bloom together in love—"like two seeds in a pod." They took the sapling of the fig tree to london, where it was hard for the tree to grow because of the temperature. Just as the story will tell you, it is hard but beautiful to bloom against all odds. But again, you need the support and tenderness of your loved one to grow in unwilling, harsh conditions. Did you know that Nicosia is the only capital city in the world that is divided down the center? Nicosia is the world's only remaining divided capital, split by the "Green Line," a UN buffer zone that runs through the city center, separating the Greek-Cypriot south (Republic of Cyprus) from the Turkish-Cypriot north (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). This novel beautifully intertwines themes of generational trauma, the immigrant experien 🌳 If you're drawn to stories that explore the complexities of love and identity, this book is a must-read. 📖❤️