Author: Elif Shafak
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5
Pages: 354
Date Started: 30 November 2021
Date Finished: 6 December 2021
I have fallen in love with Elif Shafak's writing style ever since I read the novel '10 Minutes And 38 Seconds In This Strange World'. I picked up this book because it was a new release and the storyline sounded interesting too. The synopsis of the story is about two teenagers in Cyprus, one Greek and the other Turkish, fighting to keep their promise and the political happenings keep them away for 25 years. The story between the past and present keeps the readers curious.
The entire story revolves around love, loss, and letting go. The story starts with Kostas and his daughter Adista (Ada) living in London, and Kostas trying to save the fig tree he brought from Cyprus. The story is mostly told by the fig tree, from seeing both Kostas and Dafne meeting under the tree in Cyprus, their fight to keep their relationship going even when they knew it was dangerous and could cost them their lives and maybe the lives of the family too. Kostas and Dafne meet at a local tavern 'The Happy Fig', owned by two friends Yusuf and Yiorgos, one Greek and the other Turkish. The impact of war on the island of Cyprus leads Kostas to move to London along with his mother. Kostas' older brother is killed for revenge and the younger brother joins the Greeks for revenge. Kostas returns to the island 25 years later and meets Dafne again. Dafne has had her own ups and downs during the 25 years away from Kostas.
Dafne is a member of a volunteer organization to dig and identify the victims of war and hand over the remains to their families. Dafne was pregnant when Kostas left the island and all their tries to contact Kostas weren't successful. With the family against her, but with the support of her sister, DAfne gives birth to the baby, and the baby is adopted by Yousuf but dies of health issues. Almost a year after Dafne's death, her sister Maryem visits London, and Ada meets her aunt for the first time and tries to gather as much information about her parents' lives in Cyprus, and the island in general. Ada is yearning to know more about the family and never gets an answer from her father. Maryem to a certain extent is able to answer Ada's questions and gives Ada a sense of belonging, and stability in the turmoil she is going through.
Maryem, Ada's aunt stays as an important part of the story. She is superstitious, yet practical. She tries her best to make Ada feel comfortable, yet tells her that the grief she is going through is normal. Maryem takes life as it comes and teaches Ada to let go and live every day as it comes, and not to fret about the future. The author also gives how to bury and unbury a fig tree to save the roots from harsh winter. I never knew that was the way to save the fig tree. The illustrations and the details make it easier to understand.
The most heartbreaking part of the novel was the stories by the 96-year-old fig tree. The tree narrates the love, loss, war, hate, and violence it has seen throughout its life. Seeing the story through the eyes of the fig tree and the feelings of immigrant families was sad and to the point. The emotional need to return home and the feeling of not belonging in a foreign land is well expressed. Until the end, the reader does not know what exactly happened to Dafne, I am not sure why the author left it a secret. The book says she was coma and never recovered, but the reason for her illness is never mentioned.
Favorite lines from the book:
WELCOME TO NO MAN'S LAND
Arriving there is what you are destined for, But do not hurry the journey at all...
First generation immigrants talk to their trees all the time - when there are no people nearby, that is.
Pain, there was so much pain everywhere and in everyone. The only difference was between those who managed to hide and those who no longer could.
I wish I could have told him that loneliness is a human invention. Trees are never lonely.
It is a curse, an enduring memory. When Cypriot women wish ill upon someone, they don't ask for anything blatantly bad to befall them. They simply say,
May you never be able to forget.
May you go to your grave still remembering.
As you aged you cared less and less about what others thought of you, and only then you could be more free.
When you leave your home for unknown shores, you don't simply carry on as before; a part of you dies inside so that another part can start all over again.
When the westerners run away like that it means those of us they leave behind are in deep shit.
Wherever there is war and pain partition, there will be winners, humans or otherwise.
Bridges appear in our lives only when we are ready to cross them.
'The ones who stayed dealt with the wounds and then the scars, and that must be extremely painful,' said Kostas. 'But for us...runaways, you might call us...we never have a chance to heal, the wounds always remain open.'
Tribal hatreds don't die. They just add new layers to the hardened shells.
Someday this pain will be useful to you.
If you go to Cyprus today, you can still find tombstones of Greek and Turkish widows, engraved in different alphabets but with a similar plea:
If you find my husband, please buy him next to me.
If you weep for all the sorrows in this world, in the end, you will have no eyes.
War is a terrible thing. All kinds of wars. But civil wars are the worst perhaps when old neighbors become new enemies.
Some people stand in front of a tree and the first thing they notice is the trunk. These are the ones who prioritize order, safety, rules, continuity. Then there are those who pick out branches before anything else. They yearn for change, a sense of freedom. And then there are those who are drawn to the roots, though concealed underground. They have a deep emotional attachment to their heritage, identity, traditions...
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