Book Club - March 2022

This month we'll be discussing The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus.    

Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a tavern in  the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of  garlic, chilli peppers and wild herbs. This is where one can find the best food in town, the best music, the best wine. But there is something else to the place: it makes one forget, even if for just a few hours, the world outside and its immoderate sorrows. In the centre of the tavern, growing through a     cavity in the roof, is a fig tree. This tree will witness their hushed, happy meetings,…