Here at Oakham Nub News we are working closely with Laura from Rutland Book Club to bring you monthly instalments of our new book club feature.

Laura Ray has been running Rutland Book Club for over a year and arranges monthly meet ups for other keen readers to discuss their chosen book of the month - and you are invited to join!

The book club title for this month is 'The Island of Missing Trees' by Elif Shafak.

About the book:

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home.

 The taverna is the only place that Kostas and Defne can meet in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic and chilli peppers, creeping honeysuckle, and in the centre, growing through a cavity in the roof, a fig tree.

 The fig tree witnesses their hushed, happy meetings; their silent, surreptitious departures. The fig tree is there, too, when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, when the teenagers vanish.

 Decades later, Kostas returns - a botanist, looking for native species - looking, really, for Defne. The two lovers return to the taverna to take a clipping from the fig tree and smuggle it into their suitcase, bound for London.

 Years later, the fig tree in the garden is their daughter Ada's only knowledge of a home she has never visited, as she seeks to untangle years of secrets and silence and find her place in the world.

The Island of Missing Trees is a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal.

 Laura's review:

This is a truly breathtakingly beautiful story. 

 This story is dedicated 'to immigrants and exiles everywhere, the uprooted, the re-rooted, the rootless, and to the trees we left behind, rooted in our memories.' and I think that describes the soul of this book perfectly.

This book is a personal ode to homelands and homes, those we leave behind and those we meet along the way, the nurturing of roots and the grafting of branches. It is a story of war and hope, of loss and love, and of course the fig tree that was there throughout it all. 

A totally gorgeous book. 

 How to join the book club:

Rutland Book Club will be discussing this book on Wednesday 27th July 2022 at 7.30pm. We meet at The Wisteria Hotel in Oakham. People are welcome to join the Rutland Book Club Facebook Group.

The book can be bought online or locally from Walkers Book Shop which is on the High Street in Oakham.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Rutland Book Club pick in August...

The monthly book will be shared here at the start of each month going forward.

In the meantime, we will see you at The Wisteria on the 27th of July 2022.