The Island of Missing Trees

The very context of the book, revealed in the Prologue, points to history and culture playing an important role: The story is set against the backdrop of the Greek and Turkish conflict in Cyprus. However, in addition to comprising the context of the book, the ideas of history and culture and the impact that they have on personal identity form an important theme within the story as well.

It is not insignificant, for instance, that the reader is first introduced to Ada while she is attending a history class. In the very first chapter, it is revealed that Ada is a child of a Greek Cypriot father and Turkish Cypriot mother, who migrated to London before she was born; however, Ada has never visited Cyprus, nor does she know either of her parents’ languages. This seems an unusual experience for a child of immigrants, who usually exercise some attempt to hold on to their cultural identities, but this is somewhat explained by how Ada has also never met anyone in her parents’ families, possibly because none of their family approved of Kostas and Defne’s marriage.

Over the course of the book, it becomes clear that this alienation is a result of Defne’s attempt at shielding Ada from a past that carried a lot of hurt and trauma for her and Kostas personally. The irony in this lies in two things: Firstly, Defne details how, over the time she spends meeting with immigrant families in London through her work with CMP, she observes that the oldest generation clings to the pain; the second tries to suppress every memory of it; and the third approaches the past with fresh curiosity to integrate the experiences of their ancestors into their own lived realities and identities. Despite recognizing this and marveling at it, Defne denies her own daughter the opportunity to do this in a misguided attempt to protect her.

The second fallout of this is, contrary to helping Ada feel more settled in London, the experience of growing up with no connection to her parents’ families, cultures, or pasts leaves her unsettled, adrift, and deeply lonely. Through Ada’s interactions with her aunt Meryam and over the course of the many conversations they have, it becomes clearer that Ada’s outburst in the classroom, while triggered by the most recent event of her mother’s death, is caused by frustration and confusion that has built up over the years. With insufficient historical and cultural context about her family’s past, Ada is unable to locate herself in her present, leading to a diffuse sense of identity. She is angry at Meryam and her parents’ families for never having visited them, even upon Defne’s death, and Ada’s anger is matched only by the intensity of her curiosity about her family’s past and her desire to learn more about her culture.

Ultimately, the resolution felt by both Ada and the reader comes from discovering and piecing together different events across Cyprus and its residents’ history. With inputs from Meryam and eventually even from Kostas, Ada is able to gain a deeper understanding of where her parents come from and how it has influenced her own upbringing. This allows her to make peace with Defne’s death and what the future might look like for her and Kostas, aided by the happiness she derives from establishing a relationship with another relative: Meryam. The end of the book sees Ada planning on visiting Cyprus soon, indicating that she intends to learn more about her parents’ motherland and culture; however, what she has learned over the couple of weeks she spends with Meryam has imbued her with a sense of confidence around her peers that she has been severely lacking before. This, among other things, clearly underlines the idea that for one to form and reconcile with one’s identity in the present, one needs some amount of grounding in a personal history and shared family culture—deep roots that enable the tree to grow strong and tall.