Songbirds by Christy Lefteri

 

Hardback: 363 pages

Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction

Publisher: Manilla Press

Source:  Tywyn Public Library

First Sentences: One day, Nisha vanished and turned to gold. She turned to gold in the eyes of the creature that stood before me.

Favourite Quote: “You see, we have to eat, and we have to survive, and yet we must protect our dignity and our identity. There are things we do to achieve those things. But we can respect the land and the animals that are on it. Always be kind to the land, the people, and the animals that are on it. Remember that. It’s the most important rule in the world.”

Review Quote: Exquisite writing and moving story...a powerful tale ― The Independent

My Opinion: ‘Songbirds’ is a sympathetically written novel with a hard hitting narrative. The central themes of the migrant women that travel to Cyprus hopeful of a better life and the plight of the songbirds are comparable. It seems that neither can escape the brutality of their lives.

The author got her ideas for the novel from a long term friendship with a domestic worker in Cyprus. She was also influenced by a tragedy in the country when five such domestic workers and two of their children disappeared, yet despite being reported as missing, the authorities never investigated.

The disappearance of Nisha and the subsequent search for her by her employer Petra and her lover Yiannis is very poignant. Written in such a solicitous way I feel somehow guilty saying I enjoyed the story, but I did! Recommended to those readers that like some emotional depth with their reading, as this novel certainly delivers that.

My review of:  The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri | Goodreads

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

From the bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, a powerful story about love, loss, hope and courage, set in the lush forests of Cyprus.

Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe, and killing them with his bare hands to be sold illegally as a local delicacy. He dreams of finding a new way of life, and of marrying Nisha, who works as a nanny to Angela and lives in the apartment below his. Angela is Nisha's surrogate daughter - she has left her own child behind in Sri Lanka when she came to Cyprus to find work. Angela's mother Petra is jealous of Angela and Nisha's bond, but feels powerless to love her own child in the way she thinks she should. When Nisha disappears, Yiannis is heartbroken and convinced he has driven her away. Petra is forced to become a mother again to Angela, who seems to hold the secret of what has become of Nisha.

Author Profile: 

                                                            Courtesy of Amazon

                            Christy Lefteri was born in London in 1980 to Greek Cypriot parents who moved to London in 1974 during the Turkish invasion. She completed a degree in English and a Masters in creative writing at Brunel University. She taught English to foreign students and then became a secondary school teacher before leaving to pursue a PhD and to write. She is also studying to become a psychotherapist. She released her first novel, A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible, in 2010, and her second, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, in 2019. The latter became a Sunday Times bestseller and the winner of the 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize.                         

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