*SPOILER ALERT*

Nuri and Afra Ibrahim. A beekeeper and an artist. Gentle folk who live in the beautiful city of Aleppo. Nuri and his cousin Mustafa have a thriving business harvesting honey from a multitude of bee colonies. Until the devastating day when someone burned and destroyed their hives, bees left dead on the ground. As war spreads in Syria, Aleppo burns. Tragedies beset both families, children killed in the bombing. Mustafa and his wife Dahab flee. Nuri knows he must too, but his wife has gone blind after the horrific events she has witnessed.

Their journey to seek asylum elsewhere is full of anguish and danger as they journey through Turkey and Greece, relying on human traffickers to reach England. I often lost sight of the fact that this is a fictional story - so factual is it. To share the plight of these people is heartbreaking: Hope existed then in the unknowability of the future. Istanbul felt like a place of waiting, but Athens was a place of stagnant resignation.

Mustafa makes it to England and has the opportunity to take over the husbandry of a colony of black British bees. He keeps in touch with Nuri by sporadic email. Come and join me. Nuri, who now treats Mustafa as a brother. The ending is both uplifting and uncertain. And there we both stand, battered by life, two men, brothers, finally reunited in a world that is not our home.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a hymn to the refugees of war ravaged Syria, the strength of the human spirit. A book that everyone should read.

My thanks to Bonnier Zaffre and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A heartbreaking story of how two people are forced to become refugees. It is not a journey they want to undertake. Well written and observed.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo will break your heart! In parts it's a beautiful story of a happy life, but when that life is taken away it's devastating. I couldn't stop thinking about this book, it played on my mind. How can people do terrible things to one another? All in the name of religion or money or oil! I cannot imagine being forced to flee from my home in England which I love. Everyone should read books like this one and give thanks if it doesn't apply to them. I won't forget this book in a hurry.

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy.

I still don’t really appreciate what goes on when people are forced from their home during a war zone.This novel manages to give a vivid and seemingly accurate description of the circumstances one family ( Nuri,Afra and son Sami )find themselves in in Syria.This war has only figured In my life through TV bulletins and Newspaper reports which paint a very dire situation for those living on the ground..It This book describes how a family deals firstly with the bombings and war situation in their home city of Aleppo.As well as dealing with the death of their son there,which also coincides with the wife becoming blind.It then moves onto describe their perilous journey by boat to Greece where they live in squalid condition. They then team-up with smugglers who charge huge amounts of money to get them to the UK..As to be expected their arrival in UK is not the perfect answer to their prayers because they need to go through a complex and arduous asylum seekers process which isn’t easy!
The characters Nuri, his wife Afra and son Sami are all described beautifully so that an understanding of their life together in Aleppo is vivid and believable.Having Nuri as a bee keeper in Aleppo is a real coup since it is an unusual occupation for us to understand and appreciate.but it fits in here perfectly.The book weaves this occupation into the story at many different points and as spring arrives I can truly see the amazing job bees do in our life even in the West.

Nuri is a Beekeeper in Aleppo, Syria. He loves his job working alongside his cousin Mustafa producing honey. Nuri, his wife Afra and son Sami live a simple and happy life. But, as the troubles escalate in Syria, Aleppo is no longer a safe place to live.
Following the tragic death of his son, the destruction of his business and home Nuri must leave. He must convince Afra to leave and find his cousin in the UK.
The story is told by Nuri in the present, but flips back to the past and details their journey from Syria to the UK. The journey is difficult, they meet people good and bad. They witness and experience terrible things.
This book is excellently written, providing the reader with wonderful descriptions of countries, and dark, grim descriptions of the camps.The book not only covers the physical difficulties they experience, but also the psychological effects.
This story will break hearts, and open eyes.
Thank you Netgalley, Zaffre publishing and Christy Lefteri for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a wonderful novel - powerful, moving and utterly absorbing. Nuri's narration was beautifully written but not overwrought, with the different stages of his dangerous journey evoked so well. I loved how the present merged with the past and back again.

I was slightly concerned before reading it that the timeliness of the issues behind the story might detract from the book, but it wasn't at all heavy-handed. It IS a difficult read because the reality is so harsh for people like Nuri and Afra. The beekeeping strands are well-judged but don't overwhelm. And I felt moved by the fate of the characters, and the poor city of Aleppo.

Nuri and Afra have lost everything dear to them, their son, their home, their job and their country. They have no choice but to flee war-torn Aleppo. This book follows their story from Turkey to Greece and finally England where they claim asylum.
With the clever use of a single word within each chapter, the author seamlessly weaves from accounts of what is taking place in England to flashbacks recounting their life in Syria and the struggles they faced along their journey.
It is hard to imagine what it feels like to have everything taken away from you and be forced to make this treacherous crossing, this well-written book beautifully describes that journey. If you ever ask, what makes a person leave everything they know and flee to unknown shores? This book will help answer that question, in a well written, deeply moving way. I walked with Nuri and Afra briefly via the pages of this novel and in a single sitting, I reached the end, as once I’d begun my journey with them, I did not want to let go until reaching safer shores.

Poignant story of Nuri and Afra who abandon what’s left of their life in Aleppo when everything they treasure has been destroyed in the civil war and their lives are under threat. Told with flashbacks to happier times as they make the journey with people smugglers to join Nuri’s cousin Mustafa another refugee in England, this should be required reading for everyone who thinks that people should be made to go back to their own homes instead of “sponging” of us. A large part of the novel focuses on their time in Greece, written with rare understanding of the situation the Greeks face, unable to feed and clothe themselves never mind the tens of thousands of refugees how are stuck their disrupting tourism and farming while their European allies close their borders. Here they encounter some of the worst brutality of their journey but Nuri acknowledges that in a city where the residents are reduced to selling packets of tissues to passers by their is little left for strangers. Reminiscent of the books of Khaled Hosseini but with much more understated descriptions of the horrific violence they endure this is a beautifully told but realistic story.

This is a raw but uplifting tale of a refugee and his wife from Syria who travel to seek asylum in England. It is quite lyrically told, and the present day events are interspersed with flashbacks to their experiences in Aleppo and their perilous journey through Turkey and Greece. Who would not want to help these people whose lives have become so intolerable in their own country that they have to run away and face extreme hardship to be able to live a normal life out of danger? The immigration process is gruelling but you can see how it is necessary - details cannot be proved and anyone can lie. Nuri is broken by the process but the ending is hopeful although it leaves us wanting more.

"There is so much silence here, but the silence is filled with chaos and madness. I try to remember the sound of the bees. I try to find some light by closing my eyes and imagining the field and our beehives. But then I remember the fire, and I remember Firas and Sami. Our sons have gone to where the bees are, Nuri, to where the flowers and the bees are. Allah is keeping them safe for us there, until we see them again once this life is over."

Whatever your political leanings, The Beekeeper Of Aleppo is a human narrative that manages to put a real face on issues affecting the oftentimes faceless. Nuri and Mustafa are cousins, navigating the murky world of refugee camps and smuggling to save their respective families. Mustafa himself, mostly seen through snapshot like memories and via correspondence, acts as a beacon that inspires Nuri to persevere through the darkest times of his life. Even though the book is written a bit clumsily (I found a lot of errors, ranging from punctuation to grammar to capitalisation) overall it was still quite poetic, with chapters that flowed together like water as Nuri was consumed by his memories. Neither does this book sugarcoat anything for the reader. As a good man, Nuri is forced to make choices that no one ever should, testing the boundaries of what is right and wrong while also discovering how far one could go to save the people we love most. I flew through this book and will look forward to seeing rightful accolades for the author who has managed to tell such a memorable story.

A powerful and moving story centred around a Syrian couple. Beekeepers in Aleepo but they are forced to leave their home after a bomb kills their only child and destroys everything they have.
We travel with them through their escape, at different camps and we hear of the plights of the other refugees.
This book does not glorify the refugees camps, some of the descriptions is left up to the readers imagination.
An excellently written book regarding the atrosotites of modern day warfare.

An absolute beauty of a book. Beautifully written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn’t put it down.

Oh, this is a simple and lovely book. And a timely book, also. It is told by Nuri Ibrahim, the titular beekeeper of Aleppo who has had to flee Syria with his wife Afra.

Nuri and Afra are in a bed and breakfast in Brighton with several other refugees, all waiting to see if their claims to asylum will be accepted by the British authorities. Nuri starts to tell us of life in the B&B and his account of life merges into his memories of his journey to get to the UK, and of the life they left behind.

As you can imagine, this is a difficult and heartbreaking story, and the reader realises sooner than Nuri that there is something wrong with his recounting. Nuri is trying to reach his cousin, best friend and partner in beekeeping, Mustafa, who has made it to Yorkshire and is setting up a beekeeping project for refugees. Mustafa’s emails to Nuri are often the only thing that keeps him going through the terrible journey he and Afra make, across the Mediterranean Sea, to Greece and then to the UK. It is a journey of terror, sorrow, heartbreak and humiliation. It is no spoiler, I think, to tell you that Afra and Nuri are suffering the effects.

The book is incredibly well written, unflinching in its depiction of the hardships, but without unnecessary detail – leaving some of the worst events to the reader’s imagination. The writing is full of warmth when describing the characters and their lives together, you are rooting for them from very early on. I liked how the current chapters morphed into the reminiscences, the passages joined by a single word.

This is an excellent debut, full of compassion and hope, for characters lost when their world changes beyond all recognition. It should be widely read.

Wow - what a book! I read this in 2 days.

Nuri was a beekeeper in Aleppo his wife Afra an artist. As their world became more dangerous they had no choice but to leave the land and life they loved becoming one of the tens of thousands of displaced people making a dangerous journey for many months. What a journey this story was, both geographically but also emotionally. I absolutely loved this book and loved the view it gave me of something that is very much in our headlines at the moment - immigration. It is a beautiful story that is so relevant right now.

This will break your heart but is an absolute must read - would highly recommend.

Wow! An epic tale of endurance, love and a desperate grief that cannot fail to touch the heart of even the most hardened heart. Particularly poignant at this point in time, where the rise of bigotry and racial tension is becoming 'almost' acceptable Lefteri's well researched novel challenges the perceived dichotomy of good versus evil, black versus white, rich versus poor. Lefteri's narrator successfully engages the reader whilst they accompany Nuri Ibrahim and his wife on their voyage to escape their beloved home in Aleppo, having first lost friends and then their own son to the corrupt and violent regime of Assad and seek asylum here in the UK. Through her powerful characterisation and the vast network of relationships that Ibrahim encounters, some of which cause more harm than good, Lefteri challenges some of our prejudices and preconceptions, revealing the lengths that desperate people - and governments - will go to in order to survive. The clever blurring of tense and time is set against a panoramic backdrop which covers continents both directly and implicitly, this novel gently plays with genre, expectations and our own social mores whilst leaving the reader lost for breath as it reaches its conclusion. If you enjoyed the works of Kahled Hosseini and Chris Cleave, this book will take you to the next level! Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed this book as I was immediately intrigued by the concept and wanted to know more about it. Lefteri has you rooting for Nuri and Afra from the beginning and watching their story unravel is an incredibly interesting emotional journey. I loved how the plot changed near the end and the general comment the novel makes on mental health, however would have liked if this change in plot had occurred earlier in the novel so it had longer to unfold. I would have also loved an epilogue because I'm fully invested in the characters and their story!

Where do I even start? Such a beautiful and captivating book with such a sad story yet very uplifting. The author has done an amazing job writing this book I felt every single emotion of the characters and read it in one sitting. I didn't want it to end and I'm now sitting with an awful book hangover. This has to be my favourite book ofnthe year so far.

Haunting, topical and Important
Before the troubles Nuri and his Wife had a wonderful life, simple but rich in the best of ways; Nuri was a bee keeper, his wife was an artist and his young son was a child who loved to play and read and make up stories. Then the bombs hit, and ISIS take over and, in fear for their lives they flee to be with his cousin and business partner in Britain.

The book is beautifully written and the plot weaves between their arrival in Britain to be processed for asylum and Nuri's flashbacks to the heartbreaking journey and struggles to get here. Given the subject this was never going to be an easy read ... is it one that has a happy ending? Can there ever be such a thing when you've witnessed your world fall to pieces?

This is a book that I will think about long after turning the last page and one that anyone with any compassion or interest in the human fall out of war will love as much as I did.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for the opportunity to read an advanced copy - this is my honest, unbiased opinion of this book

Beautifully written with sensitivity and heartbreak. It certainly makes you think about the horrors of war and it is the civilians who suffer.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Zaffre for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

What a fantastic book. Loved every page, beautifully written. Takes you on the journey with the main characters. Highly recommend