Review: The Girl in the Tree

The Girl in the Tree by Şebnem İşigüzel (translated by Mark David Wyers)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Girl in the Tree follows a young woman, who is nameless until the end of the book, as she isolates herself in an abandoned crane's nest in the tallest tree in Gülhane Park in Istanbul. The story of how she came to hide up in this tree begins long before she is even born. It is the story of women struggling for aegis over their lives in Turkey, from her grandmother to her mother and aunts, her friends Pembe and Derin, to the young woman herself. By turns poetic and scathing in its quiet depictions of sexism, racism, and authoritarianism in Erdogan's Turkey, İşigüzel has created a moving novel that combines a coming of age story with the brave and defiant resistance of the traumatized. Touching on the events of the Gezi Park protests, the bombings that marked a turning point in extrajudicial governance, and the pushback of young Turkish people protesting authoritarianism and shifting from the liberal society that the lure of European inclusion had offered, we feel the crushing struggle of its protagonist and the young man she comes to love.

"It is good to have hope. It is good to have desires. I wish I had hope and desires. 

I'm here because I don't have either."

This is a beautiful novel that offers readers the chance to become better informed about aspects of Turkish society in the age of Erdogan.

I received a Digital Review Copy and a paper copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Want to buy a copy of The Girl in the Tree from your local independent bookstore? Click HERE.

I received a Digital Review Copy and a paper copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Want to buy the audiobook copy of The Girl in the Tree? It is available from Audible, a division of Amazon.

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