The Island of Missing Trees

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue and Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Fig Tree

The fig tree is one of the most important entities in the book. It is the object around which the book is centered, structurally and thematically: The sections of the book are named after different parts of a tree; the burying and eventual unburying of the fig tree are important incidents in the book’s storyline; the fig tree even serves as an important character that witnesses numerous things throughout the story’s history and lends its narrative voice to the retelling in multiple chapters.

Symbolically, the fig tree represents numerous things. The tree dates its origins to 1878, the same year the Ottoman Empire concedes the island of Cyprus to the British. This marks the beginning of the “Cyprus problem” in history, which makes up the cultural and historical context of the book. It points to how Kostas’s and Defne’s experiences of conflict is a culmination of events that predates them by multiple generations.

The tree also symbolizes the immigrant experience and the attempt at new beginnings. The 96-year-old version of the tree dies in Cyprus, but Kostas brings a heathy cutting to London, which is replanted and grows into a genetic clone of the original. This is paralleled by the new life Kostas and Defne make for themselves by welcoming Ada into their lives in London as well as how they completely cut Ada off from her family’s past. Thus, along with pointing to the immigrant experience, the tree is also symbolic of Ada as a character, a child who was conceived in Cyprus but born and raised in London with no knowledge of her motherland.

The fig tree also serves as a voice for the theme of Nature and the Interconnectedness of Life. The tree constantly brings in anecdotes, perspectives of, and information about the other creatures in the ecosystem who are also impacted by human conflict and events. This interconnectedness is also emphasized by how the fig tree becomes the medium for Defne’s continuing connection with her family even after her death, as Defne’s spirit chooses to reside in the tree. Furthermore, the non-linearity of arboreal time is highlighted by this occurrence: Defne continues to exist in the universe and remain in her family’s lives even after her passing, signifying how her death has not meant a conclusive end to her place in the larger picture.

Butterflies

Butterflies are an important symbol that appear in multiple places throughout the story. Just before Ada has her outburst in the classroom, she is sketching a butterfly, which she seems to watch escape the page right before the incident. Butterflies appear in Kostas and Defne’s dynamic as well, as he gifts her a wooden music box inlaid with butterflies; Meryam later passes this box on to Ada, describing how Defne loved these creatures. Ada, in turn, remembers a story Defne had once told her about painted lady butterflies migrating during World War II; what the soldiers mistook as their certain death approaching in the form of a cloud of poison gas turned out to be a delightful sight of a swarm of migrating butterflies. Perhaps inspired by this, Defne gets a tattoo of a painted lady on the inside of her arm. It is one of this same species of migrating butterfly that visits the fig tree and tells her about discovering Kostas and Defne’s son’s grave. In this manner, the butterfly becomes an important symbol for Kostas and Defne’s family, connecting them to each other and to their children in a multitude of ways.

The Pocket Watch

The pocket watch appears in the very beginning of the book, its glint at the bottom of the well described in the prologue as pointing to the two men’s bodies lying buried there. The watch is a symbol of Yusuf and Yiorgos’s relationship, gifted by the former to the latter for a birthday. It is inscribed with lines of poetry by the poet Cavafy, and Yusuf and Yiorgos reference these lines when discussing whether they ought to leave or stay in Nicosia. Their decision to stay ultimately seals their fate, as they are eventually murdered during the 1974 conflict. Defne is given the watch many years later when the CMP finally finds Yusuf’s and Yiorgos’s bodies and uncovers what happened to them; ironically, she receives the watch and this information the day before Kostas and her are leaving Cyprus for good, which is the opposite of the fateful choice made by the tavern owners.

The pocket watch as an object symbolizes the concept of time, which is an important idea in the book. Within Yusuf and Yiorgos’s relationship, it points to how their days are numbered, and their time together in life comes to an abrupt end, paralleled by how the watch stops working when it hits the bottom of the well. In the larger scheme of the story, it points to the idea of time itself—the fig tree, for instance, talks about arboreal time being like “story time,” non-linear and perpetual; in keeping with this, the story in the book unfolds in a non-linear fashion, alternating between timelines and perspectives. The concept of time is also explored in the book’s message of the importance of acknowledging and processing events that have taken place at different points in one’s life. One needs to look to the past and to one’s history to wholly make sense of who one is today. Defne’s desire to erase the past has an impact on Ada, who feels untethered by the lack of knowledge she has about her family’s history. Ada’s curiosity is strong, and Kostas later analogizes about how it drives her to want to connect different parts of the tree to make sense of the whole picture.