Twenty-five years after Anna's unexplained disappearance from his life, William, a middle-aged Englishman living in Italy, runs into her perfect look-alike, Karen. Quizzed, the young South African denies any knowledge of Anna, even though she is living in her former flat. The chance meeting sets off an investigation that takes William back into a troubled past and a series of jealously guarded family secrets. As the unspeakable truth begins to emerge, it becomes clear that everyone who has been harmed and has struggled to survive must undergo a radical transformation. A novel about the haunting of the present by the past, Becoming a Tree explores the prisons this creates and the different ways people find to break free of them.