This wasn’t my favorite. Given the promise of the blurb, I was expecting more poetic prose and a more wry sense of humor from the protagonist.

If you can get past the whole stream of consciousness style of writing it isn’t that bad. I personally don’t like it at all and find it difficult to keep up with the premise of the store. They’re were a few parts that were touching but overall it was lack luster.

I received a free digital copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
I do not know what I expected out of this book, but I cannot get into it. I am over 10% in and cannot tell you much of anything that has happened aside from Amy Winehouse dieing and the main character climbing up a tree to stay.

"Here's the thing: we can't live our lives by forgetting. All we can do is transform our past experiences into something else. And that's what we should do, turning them into memories that won't weigh on our hearts or drag us down into misery.
If I didn't know how to forget, who could? I found myself on the treetops because I was stuck with my memories. Because I longed to forget. Because I couldn't forget."

After a constant debate with myself whether I should continue reading this book or not, I stuck with it in the end.

The story takes place in 2013-2014, during the riots and political upheavals that shook Turkey. It's about a teenage girl who is so disillusioned with her life and safety that she decides on an impulse to climb the tallest tree in Gulhane Park and live in it as she thinks this will give her a better chance at survival, both from the unrest the city is in the grip of and her memories. During the length of the novel, the girl keeps recalling different memories of her best friends, grandmother, aunt, mother and father, most of whom are now dead as a direct and indirect result of the political upheaval in the country. She also finds an unexpected friend and love in a young man, Yunus, who works in a hotel opposite the park and who becomes her only companion with whom she shares her memories and stories with.

This book, if ones sticks with it, is not bad. I guess the writing would be an issue for some since most of it is the musings of the girl in the tree (we only get to know her name right at the end) and her recollections are not synchronised. She jumps backwards and forwards constantly which can confuse readers but this shows that the girl is confused too; there are times when the girl, herself, is not sure if she is dreaming or awake while recalling a memory which shows the struggle the girl is going through trying to keep a grip on her own reality and sanity.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher AmazonCrossing and the author Sebnem Isiguzel for the e-Arc of the book. This ARC is an English translation done by Mark David Wyers.

The book was published on April 16, 2020.

2.75/5 stars

Did not enjoy this one as much as I thought I would. The writing was very eloquent but it was a bit difficult for me to follow, also did not enjoy the ending for this one.

I liked this one. Easy to read and a decent story. I'd read further books by the author. I'm rating it 3/5 stars.

So, I this is like a 2.5 star upgraded to a 3 star review for me. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the book. I do like the idea of this author being a foreign author writing about a foreign place, in this case Turkey. This provides a different perspective from that which we are so used to hearing about. The main character here, a young Turkish girl known by the moniker the girl in the tree, is a disadvantaged youth who experiences a series of personal tragedies in her young life. Perhaps out of guilt and frustration she forfeits her conventional life, for a burden less life in the trees of the local park. She makes a choice to live her life in these trees supported only by what the trees can provide her or by what she can steal from innocent park goers. Her commitment is questioned when a young Turkish bellboy from the neighboring hotel notices her in the tree and makes his efforts to become her new best friend and provider, giving her supplies and access to empty hotel rooms so she can clean herself up. Throughout the book, the girl in the tree tells her story of what led her to this life in the tree. Her love for the bellboy makes her question her resolve to stay in the tree. The narrative style is unusual as it told as a first hand account of a young girl who is talking to the reader as a friend. It also jumps around a lot. I would have hoped for a different ending after investing almost 400 pages worth of reading. Review posted to Facebook, Litsy, Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but this book didn't thrill me. Although there were moving bits and the characters were lovable, this was a book I struggled with. I felt the whole time that I should enjoy it more than I was. I analyzed this the whole time, wondering why I wasn't liking it more. The writing was good. The translation was good. The characters were good. In the end, I never could put my finger on it, but something about it felt like a struggle.

Even after I finished, I was moved by the story, but I can't say that I enjoyed the read. (This led to a rather long internal monologue about why that should matter and a lecture to myself that some of the best books aren't enjoyable but are moving and important in other ways. I know. It's how I am.)

In the end, I'll say this book is powerful, but certainly "heavy". Know that going in.

A heartbreaking a beautiful book. I loved it so much. Thank you for this beautiful book. I highly recommend it. Thank you to netgalley for rigidity me with a copy of this in exchange for reviewing it

This was not a particular favourite for me. The narrator seemed too jumpy for the duration of the book and the shift between certain points of the book seemed to be done with little smoothness. Overall, I enjoyed the story far less because of it.

The Girl in the Tree by Sebnem Isiguzel

This is a beautiful book I enjoyed from an award winning Turkish novelist with a debut novel first time translated in English. I found that the prose was an enjoyable read full of heart and beautiful theme about the role of a woman navigating their country, political environment, the changes and difficulties. It is also a coming of age story full of love and deep understanding for the compelling subject matter I really enjoyed. I read this slowly and really opened up my eyes to other cultures and the similarities of our own struggles. All of us just want to be understood and loved. A beautiful story of an #ownvoices author. This was a fascinating read for me.

Set in a volatile Turkey, we follow a young girl who decides to live out the rest of her days in the treetops of Gulhane Park. The story rallies between The Girl wanting to forget everything that has come before her and not wanting to lose precious memories she holds dear. Before long, love enters the trees and her life, but even that is not enough to entice her to return to life below.

This began incredibly strongly for me however, roughly 40% through I just got tired. The narrative seemed to volley between past and present, as well as various character arcs which I found difficult to navigate. Whether this was supposed to represent The Girl and her state of mind I'm unsure, but if it was it didn't translate especially well. Whilst I genuinely felt for The Girl in The Tree, by the ending she frustrated and perplexed me.

I have been trying to figure out how I feel about this book and what to write in this review. This is the story of the girl who one day decides to live the rest of her life in a tree. One night she climbs a tree in a remote part of a park in Istanbul next to a hotel. She is seen in the tree by Yunus, a porter at the hotel. Over the next period of time they grow closer and fall in love. We the reader also begin to learn why she needs to live in the tree. As a girl of 16 she has experienced an extreme amount of tragedy. The question is will true love be enough to save them both.

I found the writing very difficult. It goes back and forth in time and it becomes hard to follow. Then the other issue is that things you think are true you find out are not later on. While I love reading novels from other cultures this one was just very hard to finish (though I did). If you like different styles please give this a try but it was just not for me.

I admit it took me a while to get into this Turkish novel, but once I did I was totally hooked and enjoyed it more as time went on. It’s quite a complex narrative as it deals with events I know little about, so a bit of background reading beforehand is helpful. Set in 2015 it takes place following anti-government protests in Gezi Park. The narrator, a young teenager, is traumatised by a recent tragedy caused by the government crackdown and as an escape from an untenable situation decides to climb a tree in Istanbul’s Gulhane Park – and stay there. After a while she is spotted by a young boy working in a nearby hotel and he determines to help her. It’s an unusual coming-of-age tale, and I felt deeply for the girl, especially as she reveals more and more of her past history. Political and social events are expertly woven into the narrative, giving an illuminating portrait of life in modern Turkey. The narrative is disjointed, for sure, as it reflects the girl’s state of mind, and the book overall demands concentration, but the pay-off is well worth the effort required.

The Girl in the Tree is unlike anything I've read before. Poetic, tragic and utterly beguiling, this is a wonderful book. Our narrator has experienced so much grief and loss that one day she climbs a tree and decides she will never come down. She is completely alone. That is until one day, she meets Yanus, a young man who is also 'ailing in heart and soul'. He provides her with nourishment for her body, and her soul. They share stories and he calls her his Girl in the Tree. She reflects on the stories of her family, or more specifically, the stories of the women in her family. He listens, really listens. They fall in love and he implores her to come down - "Live with me. So many wonderful days await us, and there will always be more to come. Let's go through life together, in love, in happiness". Does our girl take his hand? Or does she remain in her treetop refuge? A stunning read that will stay in my heart.

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.

I was actually really looking forward to The Girl In The Tree, as the blurb sounded intriguing and I always love discovering new international authors. I certainly wasn't expecting to have the reaction I had when I finally started reading it... But it is what it is I guess. I hate DNFing this early in a story and I feel more than guilty, but I just couldn't take it anymore... I will keep this DNF review short as I only managed to read 11% (about 40 pages) before I threw in the towel, but I'll try to explain shortly why I made the difficult decision to DNF this early on.

First of all, I struggled to connect with the writing. And with struggle, I mean REALLY struggling, and I wasn't able to enjoy it at all. But more importantly, there was no plot whatsoever to speak of and the story seemed more like a collection of brain farts, random thoughts and random facts about characters you don't know being thrown at you... Mixed in with random pop culture elements including Twilight and (the death of) Amy Whinehouse. I sadly found the whole ordeal to be tasteless, chaotic, confusing and I really couldn't be bothered wasting more of my time to see if things would improve later on. Oh yes, this story definitely hit a nerve, and not in a good way. Such a shame, because I was actually looking forward to reading this... Don't give up on The Girl In The Tree on my account though, as it seems like you will either love or hate this story depending on how you react to the writing style. It's a book of extremes and most certainly not for everyone... And that includes myself sadly.

Thanks to Netgalley and AmazonCrossing for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.


The Girl in the Tree is the first of Turkish novelist Sebnem Isiguzel's books to be translated into English. Set in Turkey, our young female protagonist has lived through her share of loss and decides to set a new path by living among the trees in Istanbul's Gulhane Park. As she sits in her tree, she relates her family's history and slowly reveals the numerous instances of her sorrow.


Admittedly, I had a little trouble feeling invested in the story. This could be partially due to translation or the fact that the protagonist has a way of digressing from her present and talking about other things. Once I realized that the story was shaped that way, I was much more interested and focused.


Goodreads review published 16/04/20
Publication date 16/04/20

The Girl in the Tree, the first of Turkish author Sebnem İşigüzel novels to be translated into English, tells the story of an Istanbul teen who decides to escape life by climbing a tree and living in a stork nest.

Dedicated to “all the children and youth who have lost their lives,” The Girl in the Tree is, in turn, nightmarish and touching, gut-wrenching and heart breaking, contemporary and historical. On the surface, it’s the account of a girl’s decision to die before death, to leave life behind to escape not only her personal losses and tragedies, but losses and tragedies of her friends and family, most particularly the women in her family: mother, aunts, grandmother, and even a grandmother’s distant ancestor.
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A nameless seventeen-year-old narrator sets out to tell a story of “freedom and love,” of two teenagers “ailing in heart and soul.” Immediately shifting to the night she climbed a tree in Gulhane Park at seventeen, she goes on to explain that human lives are made up or the stories of those around them. In keeping with this belief, she slowly unfolds those stories. Readers should not expect a chronological plot and must be willing to follow the narrator’s stream of consciousness method of storytelling. From the start, she makes clear that she is one of the two ailing young people, but we do not meet the second—a young hotel bellhop--for several chapters.

Here and there throughout the book, historical events come into play, in the distant past, in the mid-1950s, as well as in the current century. A reader will do well to search online for further explanations. For example, when encountering names of places and dates, one can easily locate background information, including recent news accounts and photos. I particularly recommend reading up on the October 10, 2015 Ankara peace march. Not doing so will cause any reader to miss what may be the most important part of the book.

While many readers will understand the narrator’s allusions to classic and popular literature and culture, some may also take a few minutes to read up on Amy Winehouse and Italo Calvino’s 1957 novel, The Baron in the Trees.

How much of the narrator’s story can the reader trust? Why does she withhold information the first time or two that she starts to tell a story? Why do versions of some stories change? What experience prompted the narrator to move into the tree? Did she move into a tree at all? Does she manage to escape the tree? Questions such as these may well lie at the heart of the İşigüzel’s multi-layered novel.

Thanks to Amazon Crossing, NetGalley, and the author for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

Although the description of this novel drew me in, I had a very difficult time getting into it. I didn't find myself connecting to the story or the characters, but the writing was beautiful.