The Island of Missing Trees

by Elif Shafak

then you must gain an understanding of the oldest living organisms on earth who were here long before you arrived and will still be here after you have gone.

Where do you start someone’s story when every life has more than one thread and what we call birth is not the only beginning, nor is death exactly an end?

Wisdom consists of ten parts: nine parts of silence, one part of words.’

But civil wars are the worst perhaps, when old neighbours become new enemies.’