such a beautiful book!

I loved this book. The descriptions of Cyprus during the civil war between Greeks and Turks showed how dreadfully war affects lives and nature.
What I loved most was the way life was portrayed from the viewpoint of the fig tree. I absolutely love nature and truly believe that trees feel and have so many stories to tell.
The reason I didn't give a 5 star review is that, like many other reviewers, unfortunately the narrator who read the Greek and Turkish roles had the strangest accent I have ever heard and sometimes I couldn't understand her. I have now lived in Greece for 18 years and have lived in Turkey and I can assure you, no one sounds like that!
Apart from that I loved this beautiful book and highly recommend it!
Thank you

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2 people found this helpful

Awful narration

I enjoy reading Elif Shafak books and this is the first I've listened to. I thought the narration childish and detracted from the possible enjoyment of the book. Was unable to finish.

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1 person found this helpful

Beautifully written & performed

This captivating story really captured my heart. I will think about this book for a long time and I will probably end up quoting information from it!
The combination of fiction interweaved with fact and a beautiful love story was marvellous!
it was reminiscent to me of The Bee Keeper of Aleppo, so if you liked this book, I would also recommend that one for you.
The mixture of past and present storylines that come together is a technique that always enjoy.
The story from the past combines chapters of the forbidden love story of Kostas a Greek Cypriot, and Defne, a Turkish Cypriot, with chapters from the fig tree, which usually contain more of the factual information about Cyprus, its history, the civil war, botany, dendrology and entemology.
The chapters set more recently are focused on Ada, Kostas and Dephne's daughter, her teenage angst, modern-day problems with social media and the relationships with her father and aunt. These chapters are also intermingled with chapters from the fig tree in their back garden.
Love, relationships, hardships, devastation, family, culture, this book has it all and much more.
The narration was beautifully performed by both narrators. The character voices were distinguishable, and the accents were excellent.
I loved this book and the audio experience of it and highly recommend it!

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1 person found this helpful

Beautiful

Really enjoyed the way the story was narrated, beautiful and moving would definitely recommend a.

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1 person found this helpful

The next masterpiece from Elif

Loved it as much as any other masterpiece from Elif where she seamlessly combines history, legends and fiction without ever failing to convey her belief in humanity.

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Original story if somewhat contrived

I sometimes felt that the fascinating historical backstory of the civil war and troubles in Cyprus were clumsily imposed on the plot as opposed to being deftly weaved throughout it. The plot itself was often rather weak and all too frequently Mills & Boonesque in style. However, the narration by the Fig Tree was charming and full of wisdom. I will definitely research more into the history of Cyprus´s divisions and eventual independence. I felt this area of the book was dealt with those themes sympathetically. It just needed a far more compelling storyline.

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It could have been better

I struggled to get beyond the syrupy, patronising narrator’s voice which rose and fell to its own internal rhythm, totally dissociated from the story. I felt irritated as I really wanted to love this book as it holds memories for me, and I did in parts, but I think the experience was spoiled by the narration. I believe it would be difficult to get the accents absolutely right for everyone because accents change over space and time all over the world whereas our lived experiences, especially traumatic ones, get more fixed. They were however generally Middle Eastern accents and I could tell the different characters apart, which is always a good thing. I would recommend it though as it is a story that needs to be told.

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Beautiful book on many levels

More than a love story. Loved the historical info. Loved the fig tree ‘talking’
Thought the narrators got it just right. Beautiful use of words, gently descriptive without being gushing .
I really enjoyed it, so much so I borrowed the book and then read it. Highly recommend it.

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Such an interesting listen

Great narration. Lovely story on so many different levels. Linked with "Songbirds" by Christy Lefteri so well.

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A solid 5/5 - absolutely magic.

“Because in real life, unlike in history books, stories come to us not in their entirety but in bits and pieces, broken segments and partial echoes, a full sentence here, a fragment there, a clue hidden in between. In life, unlike in books, we have to weave our stories out of threads as fine as the gossamer veins that run through a butterfly's wings.”

My. Heart.

Audible tags this book as magical realism, and that’s exactly how I’d put it too. The book begins with Ada, a teenager living in North London, daughter of Kostas ,and her deceased mother, Defne, and her embarrassing-school-incident-turned-viral-sensation. She makes reference to her father and his fig tree - his *obsession* with this fig tree.

The fig tree narrates almost every other chapter and as a result becomes a character in itself. We learn of plant consciousness, and how poetic the life of this tree really is. It’s stories and it’s journeys - it’s high moments and low moments. And above all, we learn what it has witnessed.

Part two of the novel takes us back to 1974 Cyprus, where Defne and Kostas, our star-crossed lovers, are meeting Romeo and Juliette style in a quaint little restaurant taverna aptly named “The Happy Fig”. One of them is Greek and Christian, the other is Turkish and Muslim. This is the year of the Cypriot civil war, and our lovers have to meet in secret whilst avoiding the attention of nosy families and island-neighbours. This is just as much their story.

Traversing themes of colonialism, generational trauma, grief, loss, magic, and family, this book was so unexpectedly poetic and fully transported me into the plot.

I started this book on my break in work, and when I told people I’d started listening to a novel in which every other chapter is told from the perspective of a fig tree, my colleagues responses ranged from laughter to a “you’re a weirdo” side eyes. I’ll be returning to work to insist that every single one of them give this book a read as soon as they possibly can.

I laughed, sobbed, and literally stopped what I was doing to focus on this beautiful story (which doesn’t happen often, let me tell you). I picked this up on audible on a total whim and I’m so freaking glad I did.

Beautiful story. Solid 5/5.

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