To coincide with the exhibition, William Robinson: The Painter & the Printmaker, we will be discussing The Island of Missing Trees by prize-winning author Elif Shafak.

Register here

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic, chilli peppers and wild herbs. This is where one can find the best food in town, the best music, the best wine. But there is something else to the place: it makes one forget, even if for just a few hours, the world outside and its immoderate sorrows.

In the centre of the tavern, growing through a cavity in the roof, is a fig tree. This tree will witness their hushed, happy meetings, their silent, surreptitious departures; and the tree will be there when the war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to rubble, when the teenagers vanish and break apart.

Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada Kazantzakis has never visited the island where her parents were born. Desperate for answers, she seeks to untangle years of secrets, separation and silence. The only connection she has to the land of her ancestors is a Ficus Carica growing in the back garden of their home.

In The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak brings us a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, memory and amnesia, human-induced destruction of nature, and, finally, renewal.

Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction (mostly) to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our Engagement Officer, Renae Belton and QUT Librarian Nicole Clark.

Texta is held throughout the year on Tuesday evenings. Purchase this title from the Bookshop at QUT Depot.

For any queries, contact QUT Art Museum on 07 3138 5370 or artmuseum@qut.edu.au