Cover Image: The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

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Member Reviews

Nuri is in heaven. He has always wanted to be a beekeeper. Now in Aleppo his dream has come true. His cousin, Mustafa and he have a successful business raising bees, cultivating the honey, and discovering new ways to implement honey in everyday items. Happiness abounds, families are happy, their in paradise. Then with the flash of bombings and the war, everything is destroyed. Both families lose their sons. They are forced to immigrate to the United Kingdom.
The trials, heartbreak, trauma of mind, body and soul are enough to make anyone give up. The hope of a better life, and the soft humming of bees will give them the strength needed to survive.
A rich and powerful story. Magnetic, doesn't let you go until the final page.

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Life in Syria was sweet for beekeeper Nuri and his wife, artist Afra until war broke out. Together the two make their way across a war torn country, through Turkey and Greece, hoping to find a new home in England. This is an incredible story, heartbreaking and timely and should be read by every person who has any question about why victims of political upheaval and ethnic cleansing need a safe refuge

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This book left me speechless- so wonderfully written, especially in capturing such a traumatic and tragic experience and war which forced them to flee.
The story, although is fictional, was able to really captivate a realistic and daunting story of the struggles Nuri and Afra, his wife had endured, escaping their once now destroyed country that was once a place of happiness, joy, and more. Now, they are among the thousands and the mass-displacement of Syrian Refugees fleeing from the current Civil war to Greece through a treacherous and dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Lefteri was able to really captivate their loss, their hope and the difficult extent of their long journey to safety. She was able to elicit my emotions of fear, of sadness, of anger throughout the book.

This journey personally resonated with me so deeply because I studied about Refugee health and worked with the Syrian Refugees across Sweden and the States. This is a story of immigration, of the danger and the violence that immigrants flee from to safety. People most definitely have to read this book- to really begin to understand even a bit of the hardship that each refugee and asylum seeker had to overcome to be where they are today.
Such a relevant book for the current political Climate, especially for those so oblivious to the refugee experience.

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Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing / Ballentine Books for this arc.

This was a heart-achingly slow read for me, but yet a WONDERFUL read.

This is the story of Nuri and Afra, Syrian refugees / asylum seekers. Their losses were total and unimaginable. Their journey to England horrific. The physical, emotional and mental deprecations were near total. And yet, the found the determination to struggle on and complete their journey.

Just gut-wrenching and well worth the hours and hours it took me to complete the read.

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