2022 WP shortlist - The Island of Missing Trees

[Hugh, Active moderator]

The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I need to try this again and see if I can come to terms with a talking tree this time

[Paul]

The author keeps doing book talks each year at the end of my road. And I keep not going!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Is she talking to the trees at the end of the road. Best leave her to it.

[Neil]

I could not come to terms with the talking tree. Especially when it started talking to butterflies. I’ve never been good at reading that kind of thing.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

You did better than me. I abandoned and had to explain why to the publisher

[Nadine in California]

I know this is terribly unfair and arbitrary, but my only experience of Shafik is leafing through The Forty Rules of Love, and feeling overwhelmed by cloying shmaltz on every page I dipped into. Frustrating, because its story intrigued me. I have a feeling this isn't the book that could set me right with her. She may be a more romantic writer than I can handle. I get the same feeling from Isabelle Allende - who I was able to read when I was younger (when she and I were younger) so maybe our tastes aged differently ;)

[WndyJW]

I agree Nadine, The Forty Rules of Love was awful and The Bastard of Istanbul was meh. I hope others here report that this is Shafak’s best book yet.

[Robert]

WndyJW wrote: "I agree Nadine, The Forty Rules of Love was awful and The Bastard of Istanbul was meh. I hope others here report that this is Shafak’s best book yet."

I thought Bastard of Istanbul was excellent but everything else I read from her was okish bordering on mediocre

[WndyJW]

I liked Ten Minutes 38 Seconds…but was disappointed in The Bastard. I didn’t hate it, I just wanted more. I read it a million years ago though soI can’t remember why.

[Irene]

Nadine in California wrote: "I know this is terribly unfair and arbitrary, but my only experience of Shafik is leafing through The Forty Rules of Love, and feeling overwhelmed by cloying shmaltz on every page I ..."

40 rules was really by far the worst book of Shafak I read, so might be worth to try this one or preferably 10 minutes 38 seconds...

I enjoyed reading the island of missing trees, but don't consider it a potential winner.

[Cindy]

I just could not make this work for me. I think maybe Shafak is not my kind of writer. Every time I read one of her books, I start off with the best of intentions and it just doesn't hold together for me. The talking tree was just one of the things that I did not like much about this book. But I am not surprised that it's on the longlist and wouldn't be surprised if it made the shortlist either.

[Tracy]

I’ve read five of her books- the only one I didn’t care for so far was Forty Rules.
I haven’t gotten to this one yet- I need to finish the IB long list first. But I’m not sure how I’ll feel about a tree talking to butterflies.

[David]

Starting this one next. I hope I like talking trees better than talking dogs.

[Joy D]

I really enjoyed this book. At first the talking tree seemed strange, but the ending gave me a better appreciation for why Shafak employed that particular device.

My Review

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

There are talking cows on the longlist also.

[WndyJW]

Ghosts and talking animals. We’re all looking for answers from the supernatural, it seems.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Just the judges I think.

[Cindy]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Just the judges I think."

I think so too.

[David]

Well, I don’t know. Is magical realism having a moment in fiction?

[Cindy]

Fair question David, but so far for me, some of these titles exemplify magical realism more meaningfully than others. The others seem just to employ ghosts or spirits as a device.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I do not think any I have read get magic realism at all really.

[David]

I’m about a quarter of the way through this. The tree is the best part.

[WndyJW]

Is that praise or criticism, David?

[David]

The tree isn’t that bad. So far, the other narrator is nominally a 16yo girl, which is fine, but it reads like she’s 13 or 14.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Another thing about this longlist is the judges clearly like child or teenage narrators.

In addition to this;

Flamingo (two children narrators in the older timeline), Careless (15-16 year old first person), Book of Form and Emptiness (13-14 year old in dialogue with a book)

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Just realised Salt Lick has a child narrator also - seems far too many to be a coincidence.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Just realised Salt Lick has a child narrator also - seems far too many to be a coincidence."
The children in this book and Salt Lick do not get to narrate directly - in both cases all of the first person prose apart from quoted speech and correspondence is from non-human perspectives or omniscient narrators.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to, for me it is probably the best of the three Shafak novels I have read (the others being 10 Minutes 38 Seconds and the Bastard of Istanbul).

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Thanks Hugh - I perhaps meant child /teenage protagonists.

[WndyJW]

I’m crossing wires with other prizes I know, but Somebody to Love You, Our Lady of the Nile, The Book of Mother, and Heaven are children centered stories as well.

[David]

This isn’t the type of book I’d normally read, but I don’t hate it. I’m liking it much better than Build Your House.

[David]

Published Nov. 2, 2021. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this on the booker list.

[LindaJ^]

Finished this yesterday. Quite unimpressed. While I am not opposed to talking trees, This one was too humanlike for me - a tree that falls in love and is jealous was a step too far. I liked the historical information the tree provided. I did not care for the ending - too bland. I won’t get to writing a review for awhile.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Reading this now to finish the long list and determined to
finish this time.

Around 80 pages in and it feels like an intersection of two distinctive features of this year’s list - books with non human narrators (what stopped me the first time) and what are effectively young adult books.

I don’t necessarily completely mind the idea of a tree narrator but when the tree appears to alternate explaining how trees are different to humans with exhibiting anthropomorphic emotions and when it seems to have access to Wikipedia so as to be able to fill in some history … I am less sure.

[Neil]

That tree annoyed me intensely for exactly those reasons. I always seem to struggle with animals or plants as narrators but here it seemed worse because the tree was better read than me!

[Britta]

What is it with writers and talking trees lately?? (And yes, I really didnt like Overstory, dnf-ed before the halfway point).

[Neil]

Ah, now I liked The Overstory because the trees in that were trees and they were important because they were trees.

[Britta]

Well read trees? LoL.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I was slightly less keen than Neil on Overstory but yes those trees were trees

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

And with reference to your comment re the Booker David - it was published in August so eligible last year.

[David]

This would have been much better if we alternated between the present day and the tree narrating the back story. Even better if the tree had a faulty memory or was somewhat unreliable.

The tree didn’t bother me as a concept, just how it was done. Perhaps more controversially, I could have done without the chapters that took place in Cyprus. The book would have been much better if that backstory was left to hazy memories and occasional glimpses into the past.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I would be surprised if this was not shortlisted and could even see it winning - but I felt there was a lot wrong with it, some of which was almost (but not quite) saved by the ending

Some thoughts here

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[David]

I agree with all your thoughts, Gumble, and also expect to see this shortlisted. This seems to be a mixture of all the trends picked up by the longlist: plus Shafak is a recognized name who will do well at WP events.

[WndyJW]

I’m tempted to read this since Hugh said he enjoyed the most of the three of Shafak’s novels he’s read. I’ve never hated Shafak’s books, except The Forty Rules of Love, they’re just underwhelming. She has great story ideas, but doesn’t quite deliver for some reason.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

She’s a great essayist, political activist, speaker, book prize judge. Just can’t write fully successful novels.

[WndyJW]

Agreed. I really want to love her novels, but I don’t.

[Britta]

I’m about 50 pages in and I wish I didnt have to read on. A child narrator who bores me and a fig tree in love which is completely ridiculous. Sigh.
@WndyJW @Gumble'sYard: same here! Such a pity.

[David]

Since it’s such a discussion point on the Tomb of Sand thread, I would be remiss for not pointing out that this book also features queer characters who meet an inevitable tragic end. GY nicely picks up on this in his review.

It is 2022 and we should stop rewarding depictions of queer characters who are destined for tragedy.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

And it’s not a spoiler for anyone who has not read as their dead bodies appear before they do.