Ada

Ada Kazantzakis is the protagonist of The Island of Missing Trees. She is a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in London, England with her father Kostas. Ada misses her mother Defne dearly. The present plot line of the novel opens a year after Defne’s death.

Like her mother, Ada is headstrong. She refuses to be persuaded into obedience of any kind. Ada is inherently curious and often questions her father and aunt about Cyprus. She is frustrated by her ignorance of her family’s past. Ada also resembles her mother physically. Meryem often comments on how much Ada looks like Defne.

Ada suffers from depression, which she inherited from her mother. The novel opens with a mental breakdown that Ada has at school, where she screams in front of her entire class. Generally, Ada is viewed as weird or different. Nevertheless, she has a few close friends like...