Christy Lefteri
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri is the emotionally compelling story of a Syrian refugee couple as they undertake the perilous journey from Aleppo to England to escape the Syrian civil war.
The story unfolds in the first-person narrative of Nuri Ibrahim. Together with his cousin Mustafa, Nuri runs a successful beekeeping farm in Aleppo. The only thing that exceeds his passion for bees is his passion for his wife, Afra, and their young son, Sami. With the outbreak of civil war, their lives are turned upside down. People are snuffed out by bombs and by gun-toting militias who roam the streets, raping, pillaging, and killing at will. Tragedy strikes when Mustafa’s son is killed. Mustafa escapes Aleppo to join his wife and daughter in England. When Nuri and Afra’s son is killed by a bomb, Afra loses her eyesight as a result of the explosion. Initially Afra refuses to leave Aleppo in spite of the escalating danger. But when Nuri’s life is threatened, she agrees to leave. They embark on their hazardous journey to England to join Mustafa.
The chapters alternate between the present and flashbacks of the past. The novel opens with Nuri and Afra in a B & B in England awaiting their asylum application. The flashbacks of the past include their simple, happy lives in Aleppo before the outbreak of the civil war; Nuri’s partnership with his cousin on the bee farm; memories of his son; his nightmares, dreams, and hallucinations; the journey to Turkey; the boat trip to Greece; the refugee camps; and the arrival in England.
The journey is fraught with danger every step of the way. Nuri and Afra rely on smugglers to transport them from one country to the next. They encounter refugees from the Middle East, Iran, and Africa, many of whom are broken and traumatized by their experiences. As the story unfolds, it becomes evident Afra’s loss of vision is psychosomatically induced by the trauma of her son’s death, and Nuri suffers from hallucinations and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Her work as a volunteer at a UNICEF-supported refugee center in Athens in 2016 and 2017 sensitized Christy Lefteri to the plight of refugees and gave her first-hand knowledge of their lives and experiences. Her emotionally gripping novel furnishes a human face behind the statistics of refugees flooding Europe to escape the horrors of civil war and persecution. Lefteri has produced a well-crafted story and told it simply and elegantly. Her characters are authentic and rendered with compassion and sensitivity. Nuri and Afra’s experiences and the experience of their fellow refugees are heart-wrenching. Although the uplifting, hopeful conclusion is gratifying, one is left wondering if and how a people’s invisible scars can ever fully heal after experiencing such trauma.
A compelling novel of courage and the fierce determination to survive against all conceivable odds.
Highly recommended.