Songbirds

Lefteri, in her latest release ‘Songbirds’, highlights the life of immigrants who travel far and wide (in this case from Sri Lanka to Cyprus) to earn a living. If some are lucky, they get a caring household which offers them respect. Some don’t even get a room to themselves and may be subject to humiliation, abuse and violence. And some just disappear! No one knows what happened to them!As is with Nisha in Songbirds. Making Petra’s life easy, being a mother to Petra’s Aliki, stealing personal moments with Yiannis in her free time and all the time looking after and loving her own daughter, Kumari, back in Sri Lanka, Nisha sings her song even if she is a bird in a cage; and one morning that song is heard no more.Where is Nisha? Is she dead or alive? Has she run away? To another employer or back home? We don’t know. We spend the entire book on this search - through POV’s of Petra and Yiannis - but even at the end, we still don’t know!Lefteri’s writing is lyrical : like the song of the birds. Caught in the net by poachers as they fetch good money, they sing till their last breath. Lefteri’s writing is immersive: you get lost in the landscape descriptions. In the people and the beauty.Intelligently and sensitively Lefteri weaves in many stories. The primary one being of the immigrant domestic workers and the racial prejudice they face. Through this is highlighted exploitation and the failure of the system.Motherhood and parenting, loss, longing and grief, all are important anchors of this read: Nisha as a mother to her Kumari; Petra, learning to be a mother to her daughter after Nisha disappears.The widespread malaise of poaching and smuggling is the other side of the story. Yiannis, caught in the web he puts out to ensnare the songbirds, is gentle at heart. He loves Nisha and through him we learn of her backstories.Lefteri skillfully develops her characters: each of them is endearing, coming together to search for Nisha, in the process discovering their own strengths and frailties.The only voice we are left wanting to hear is that of Nisha herself. But she has disappeared, taking the melody out of each one’s lives.The book grows on you and becomes unputdownable as you long to hear the melody of a happy end or at least to know Nisha is alive and safe. It is high in emotion and leaves you sad. I wished for a Nisha POV and a happier ending.But those are the reasons to read this book. To honor those whose lives get displaced; who no one cares about, least of all the system. Lefteri writes in her note about the real tragedy which inspired this book: about five missing women and their children and the police refusing to take in a complaint or take action.This book gives a voice to the silenced. We need to hear their stories. See them as humans not machines or robots.

Best of christy

will say more realistic than her beekeeper of Aleppo which was more surreal in nature.. but had her lyrical tilt and great story skill thoroughly enjoyed

Beautifully written. It rightly shows the struggle of the financially backward classes of the society.It's a reminder to all of us living a comfortable life in our city homes, that there is like beyond the four walls, a live which is not a easy as ours. And that we need to empathetic to every person.

Intriguing scenario of a missing maid, whose employer gradually discovers that she was an invaluable part of her family, & simultaneously supporting a family of her own. Lefteri crafts a recognizable social network of neighbours & friends as Petra and Yiannis attempt to unravel this mysterious disappearance.This story confronts shameful truths with such touching sensitivity. Moving scenes of cruelty and kindness : the tensions of life.

‘It’s unlike her’ kept thinking Petra, after her Sri Lankan maid, Nisha vanished overnight, leaving all her cherished belongings and passport in place. ‘The proposal scared her’, was all Yiannis could imagine when he didn’t see Nisha for a few days. Restlessness began to creep in when these two met and realised something ominous might be underway.✨With her new book, Christy Lefteri brings the migrant domestic workers, the usually unseen, to the limelight. Songbirds is a story about the existing systematic racism and the prejudices that these workers face. With each step of the reconstruction of Nisha’s life through Petra’s & Yiannis’s accounts, the strength of her character and the extent of her emotional suffering become more and more evident.✨Some heartbreaking realities are beautifully impressed upon the reader - Nisha nurtures and raises Petra’s daughter Aliki with great love but her relationship with her own daughter back home, is limited to a daily video call. The police couldn’t care less about missing migrant workers, pushing them deeper into a life in shadows.✨In a truer sense, it’s a story of entrapment as many women like Nisha cross the seas to earn a decent living, leaving their families behind, only to face a plethora of struggles in a foreign land. The book is not as gut wrenching as The beekeeper of Aleppo but discusses a very important issue through the agency of a poignant story, beautifully told.

2nd hand book received in quick time, front cover and first few pages folded over so has been well thumbed. Happy to receive it though & recycle again when finished.

This is one of the books I enjoyed but felt I was missing some basic details. There are lyrical sections between the grim treatment of domestic workers in Cyprus. When one goes missing, the local police dismiss the concerns and show their total disregard for the migrant workers. Her murder only comes to light because a few caring people get involved. The police are forced to take action when a body is found.I did not understand the references to a decaying hare.Maybe I need to read more about the Cyprus culture and history.

The metaphor running through this book, that of the songbirds' difficult migration only to meet a cruel end, and the migrant domestic workers suffering the same fate, is exquisitely delivered. It is a beautiful book of love, loss and painfully difficult decisions. Also woven through it is the disgrace of those turning a blind eye to the hardship and pain of others using laziness and misplaced cultural ideology to defend their position. It's complex and haunting and absolutely stunning.

A heartbreaking novel. I can’t imagine how sad it was for mother and child to be separated and for so many years. And I understand that even today families are separated from each other to survive. A beautiful novel i it’s own right.

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri is a very good book and a new author to me. This is based on the disappearance of domestic workers from other Countries who went to Cyprus to send money back to their families. This story is about Nisha from Sri Lanka who's husband died and leaves Sri Lanka to go to Cyprus to support her mother and young daughter. Nisha goes to work for Petra, who has lost her husband and is frozen to all her emotions but has a baby girl, Aliki at the time Nisha begins working for them. Also to the story is Yiannis who becomes Nisha's love interest and is involved with poaching birds and selling them on the black market. I was unfamiliar with this, the culture of Cyprus and the lives and mistreatment of domestic workers. Lefteri is gifted as a story teller and paints all this this in a way that keeps all very interesting. Nisha goes out 1 evening and never returns and the story of the affect and love that Nisha has given each of the characters is the message of this book. Lefteri's gift of painting Cyprus, the food, the scenery and the lives of all the domestic workers that are only trying to survive is captivating. I recommend this book!!