Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Have you ever tried to talk to your

parents or aunts or uncles about stuff that happened way back when? I don't know, maybe you were a

nosy teenager trying to get a grasp of why your folks are the way they are, or maybe you're a little

older trying to understand where

you come from.

Today's book titled The Island of Missing Trees starts with a young high schooler named Ada.

Her parents are from Cyprus, the little island in the east of the Mediterranean Sea.

Now, in the 1970s, Cyprus was the center of a conflict between Greece and Turkey.

Like a lot of conflicts, the reasons for it are historical and complicated.

And the book's author, Alev Shafak, told NPR Steve Inskeep

that she wanted the story to be free from tribalism or nationalism,

which is why much of the story is told from the point of view of a tree.

I'll let Steve take it from here.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The well-traveled novelist Aleef Shafak once made a discovery about a well-traveled tree.

She was living in the United States when she learned about the fig.

When I was in Michigan and Arbor, the winters were so cold.

And I remember meeting Italian-American families who would bury their fig trees

...