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| author | mjkwiatkowski <mati.rewa@gmail.com> | 2026-01-28 14:30:13 +0100 |
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| committer | mjkwiatkowski <mati.rewa@gmail.com> | 2026-01-28 14:30:13 +0100 |
| commit | e99bd99eeedbf38390e0d4d014c35b04a280767b (patch) | |
| tree | 1c5c045f553205bb70fb50db865b3c34c61f8768 /public/books/the-island-of-missing-trees/index.html | |
| parent | b56e4a6a679a3151b02749edc0028ce909037cdc (diff) | |
feat: added new read books
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| -rw-r--r-- | public/books/the-island-of-missing-trees/index.html | 85 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 85 deletions
diff --git a/public/books/the-island-of-missing-trees/index.html b/public/books/the-island-of-missing-trees/index.html deleted file mode 100644 index a2439d6..0000000 --- a/public/books/the-island-of-missing-trees/index.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,85 +0,0 @@ -<head><script src="/livereload.js?mindelay=10&v=2&port=1313&path=livereload" data-no-instant defer></script> - <meta charset="utf-8"> - <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> - <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="/images/favicon-32x32.png"> - <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="/images/favicon-16x16.png"> - <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/style.css" /> - <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/fonts.css" /> - <script async type="text/javascript" src="js/code.js"> </script> -</head> - -<div class="container"> - <ul id="bar"> - - <li> - <a href="/">go back</a> - </li> - <li>|</li> - - <li> - <a href="mailto:mati.rewa@gmail.com">mati.rewa@gmail.com</a> - </li> - <li>|</li> - <li> - <a href="https://git.denounce.ai/">git.denounce.ai</a> - </li> - <li>|</li> - <li> - <a href="https://ohmyghost.nl">ohmyghost.nl</a> - </li> - <li>|</li> - <li> - <a href="https://atlarge-research.com/mkwiatkowski/">research</a> - </li> - <li>|</li> - <li> - <a href="/books">book blog</a> - </li> -</ul> - - -</div> -</div> -<div class="container"> - <h2>The Island of Missing Trees</h2> - <p><em>The Island of Missing Trees</em> is a fiction novel written by Elif Shafak with action set mostly in London and Cyprus and taking course over several decades between 1970s and 2010s. -It is a book full of surprises and historical insights into that period of time, specifically the Greek-Turkish conflict over the Cyprus island. -The main premise of the book, in my opinion, sends a message about how the actions we take in life echo across generations, and what might seem unimportant to us now can be defining in the future of others. -Two main characters - Kostas and Dephne - are from different parts of the island. -Kostas is Greek while Dephne is Turkish. -Both are deeply in love with each other during their teens, however arising conflict and tensions have a tragic impact on their relationship and families, which is what the book is mainly about.</p> -<p>The theme that stands out to me the most is the relationship between Kostas and his daughter - Ada. -Given that the novel is written as a set of flashbacks, the reader often travels between the past and 2010s. -Ada has been born long after Kostas has settled in England, which is what the “present” part of the book is about. -After Ada’s mother - Dephne - succumbs to alcoholism, Kostas has to take care of Ada alone. -Not to mention the difficulty of such a task itself, on top of this Kostas has to cope with the recent loss of the love of his life. -I cannot place myself in a setting like this - from one side, the terrifying grief of missing your second half, and from the other the feeling that you are not making a good enough job as a lone father - I think this would just be too much for me. -Nevertheless, Kostas does the best he can. -Even if he sometimes does not succeed in doing so, we can clearly see he cares about Ada deeply e.g., when he rushes to her school to talk to the principal after Ada’s incident in class. -As another example, Ada often mentions that her father distances herself away from her in order to give her space when she needs it to. -This again shows, that even though Kostas might not be the best in parent-child interaction, he can also tell when his daughter needs breathing space. -If you think about it, it is really brave of Kostas to do so. -I can imagine that in such a tragic scenario the one thing you would like most to do is to be as close as possible to your relatives. -Yet Ada’s a bit different - she does not want Kostas to be constantly inquiring about her school life and homework. -Kostas seems to understand it - and even though I believe that at that time what he would like to do most is to be with his daughter, he realizes he needs to take a step back. -Taking that step is something I would most surely consider as brave and worth exemplifying.</p> -<p>Nevertheless, although this theme is the one that stood out the most to me, I did not like the book in particular. -While the author does a great job trying to show the different cultural aspects of the story, and through metaphors tries to teach us valuable life lessons, I dislike this style of writing altogether. -The book is devoid of realistic scenarios, and is full of grandiose moments and action points that very rarely happen in real life. -The theme of the fig tree, while interesting itself seems completely destroyed by the plot twist at the end of the book - it makes the book seem more like an optimistic tale with a happy ending rather than a truthful portrayal of the dim tragedy of death. -It is not the plot twist that should make us believe Dephne lives on - it is when Meryem is reminded of the similarities between Dephne and Ada that we should be happy that a part of her lives among the family. -Generally, I do not think I would recommend this book - it is a nice read, but lacks the seriousness with which the tragic stories that it describes should be treated.</p> - -</div> -<footer style="vertical-align: bottom;"> - <div style="display: block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"> - <center> - - © Copyright 2024-2025 Mateusz J. 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