The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a novel about the devastating effects of living in a war torn country. The characters in this magnificent tale are trying to completely uproot their lives to find safety in refugee status while fighting their demons brought on by the trauma of the unspeakable atrocities they have witnessed and survived. The writing is spare, yet elegant. The imagery is vivid and haunting, and at times breathtaking. We see and feel all that these people lose. I was transfixed and transported. This one will be talked about in book circles! Highly recommend.

'I am scared of my wife’s eyes. She can’t see out and no one can see in.'

Beekeeper Nuri’s wife Afra (a talented artist once full of joy, laughter like gold) is disappearing to a dark place deep inside after horrific tragedy in Allepo obliterates every speck of life they created. It’s better not too see, there is safety in blindness when you live in a world brutal, hateful, ugly. This is war, it cares nothing for the land nor it’s people. Things are getting more dangerous, if they stay they will die, how can Nuri get the blind Afra to see this? How can Nuri convince her that emotions must be corralled, logic must be the only guide for now? How can Afra leave this land, it holds the blood, the remains of every breath of life she existed for? Leave they must, but they will take the wasteland with them, inside their hearts. For Afra isn’t the only one whose mind has been ravaged by grief, Nuri may have his vision but he sees life as a version he can stomach, as a way to keep his feet moving so he can have a dream to hitch them to.

With his cousin Mustafa waiting for him in the UK, he will do everything it takes to begin anew, but first they must live as refugees where their very lives are dependent on trusting others, proving themselves as worthy of getting to Great Britain. They will meet others just as damaged as them along the way, with broken dreams and tortured memories. “These things are in the past. They will evaporate soon, like the river..”, but the past has it’s hooks inside Afra, and Nuri too. He must be strong, for Afra’s fragile state makes her vulnerable and her heart cannot take much more. Afra doesn’t want the past to evaporate, she doesn’t want to see the future, for it died that day in Syria.

Nuri feels he has lost Afra, and loss seems to be all he knows anymore. Their world in ruins, through the journey they will inch closer together and drift apart, can they keep their love alive, is there any hope of beginning anew, will anything give Afra the desire to heal? Maybe Afra isn’t the one who needs healing. Would that they could be like Nuri’s beloved bees, that “small paradise among chaos”. There isn’t a sanctuary from the ravages of war, it’s impossible to return to what was, the only hope is in finding something new to live for, and with memory and love keeping what was from being erased.

So many of us are protected by the happenstance of our birth, and will never know about such wars, the all consuming terror, grief and destruction. We won’t have to alter our ways to fit into another country, and abandon our very culture, it’s traditions. Leave behind all the people who were a part of the landscape of our days and wonder if they are still alive. Hope for word from the very person you are running too, unsure if they are still waiting for you. We won’t be living our lives in between places, wishing for a place that is gone. If tragedy opens our doors, most of us won’t be forced to leave our homeland without family to comfort us, with time against us and the chance to grieve a luxury we can’t afford. We won’t have the barrier of language to scale. It is only through stories, films, and memoirs that we can even scratch the surface of such tragedy and yet still, I repeat, you will never know about such wars, the all consuming terror, grief and destruction. We have our miseries, of course we do, but there are not enough words to express the abyss of war. We can feel compassion, but I’m not sure we have the capacity to fully comprehend it as those who live through it have no choice to.

We sometimes overlook people living in different parts of the world, it’s easy enough to do when it isn’t affecting us. We forget to see them as human beings, we do it sometimes in our own families as well, it’s human nature. This story gives life through Nuri and Afra, something to connect with, a bridge of sorts, something beyond the news that we can just gap at in horror and turn the channel, go on our merry way. There are lives beyond the headlines, people with emotions and children, partners, battles to wage. How easy it is to forget.

There is hope and love between these pages, between Nuri and Afra, despite the fear he has of his wife’s eyes. Fear of what their loss has done to her, the state it’s left her in, fear she may never come back to him and be the woman he loved with an easy, deep affection. Yet, there is no room for surrender if you want to live, it takes strength beyond measure to survive. Survive they will, but with sacrifice of immense proportions. There is beauty in moments, but it is a heavy read.

Publication Date: August 27, 2019

Random House

Ballantine Books

Beautiful, haunting, and challenging. This is a book that may draw me back to regular fiction. The characters both main and secondary, are well drawn, interesting, and heartbreaking.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a haunting and captivating read. Christy Lefteri’s descriptive and heart wrenching depiction, of the plight of refugees, provides visuals to the written word. This novel is so well written, as it describes the unbelievably tormented lives of people seeking asylum. Yet, there is a message of hope, when all seems lost. A message to embrace. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher Bonnier Zaffre for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Author Christy Lefteri's The Beekeeper of Aleppo is both vibrant and stark. She conveys the vibrancy of pre-war life in Aleppo, Syria for Nuri, a beekeeper, his artist wife Afra, and their son Sami. In alternating chapters, we feel the desperation and despair in Nuri's and Afra's lives as refugees after fleeing Alleppo and their attempts to join other family in England, The language is beautiful and haunting,; the characters loving and pained - such contrasts show a clear divide in life 'before' and 'after'. Highly recommend!
I received a free advance reader's e-book from Penguin Random House via NetGalley to facilitate my review.

This a beautifully written piece of fiction on the Syrian refugee crisis. As a reader of historical fiction, it was easy for me to slip into the mindset that this happened a long time ago, and then something would happen that would bring me flying back into present day. Hard to believe these things are happening. Eye opening and very well written.

The page didn’t save my review so I’m rewriting from memory; if I missed anything vital I’ll try to remember to add later.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for a free copy of the ebook in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was hoping to have this review published by International Refugee Day, but I’m a few days too late.

This beautiful, painful, hopeful book. Beekeeper Nuri and his artist wife Afra live with their son in Aleppo when civil war breaks out. After watching much of their family leave their home, Nuri and Afra finally decide they have to leave. Struggling with the devastating effects of PTSD, the two try to flee by whatever means necessary (suspicious government programs, dangerous smugglers, and overcrowded refugee camps) to make it the UK, where their cousins have been granted amnesty.

I have to say, this was a hard read, but worth it. Nuri’s tale of his journey unearths the absolute best and worst of humanity. Lefteri does an incredible job conveying emotion through her storytelling and chapter format (flashbacks that AREN’T completely jarring; and the use of titles is GORGEOUS!), but her real strength lies in her dimensional characters. People who do terrible things having nice conversation, and people who seem terrifying and crazy at first meeting turn out kind and brave. Nuri’s narrative is a great example of this complex storytelling, in his capacity to seek out beauty and sunlight in the darkest moments. Lefteri humanizes refugees in a way that media coverage has all but erased, and told the stories of those voices to whom no one will listen. You will not leave this story unscathed.

Bouquet: sunlight on a dusty road, bees buzzing over a field of wildflowers, one red marble, a creaking lifeboat, the sharp taste of mint, a blank stare, shadowy faces across a bonfire, Greek music over a staticky radio, a brass key, freshly sharpened colored pencils, the pop and fizz of a Coke can being opened, a crowded park

Trigger warnings: <spoiler> solicitation of a minor, rape, many deaths as result of war (including loss of children), PTSD (including auditory/visual hallucinations), self-mutilation, murder </spoiler>

Even though <u>The Beekeeper of Aleppo</u> doesn’t pull any punches in detailing the realities of life as a refugee, it doesn’t really <I>taste</I> like despair. It tastes like hope.

I highly recommend this book. This is a powerful story of survival told from the main character’s voice. Nuri and his wife Afra must escape their Syria community. The year is about 2016 and war is ravaging their lives, their community of Aleppo, and their country.
To help the reader understand Nuri’s circumstances, the story is told through flashbacks. We gain an understanding of the suffering of this particular refugee crisis and that translates to other refugee situations.
I felt such sympathy for Nuri, a very likeable character, and some of the people he befriended. We learn about Nuri’s traumas, his feelings of love and hate, his desperation and helplessness. Despite the anguish, Nuri doesn’t give up. Neither does his wife Afra. If only they can find a way to get to England, to his relative Mustafa, maybe he can become a beekeeper again and begin a new, safe life.
I received an advanced copy of this book. #NetGalley #TheBeekeeperofAleppo

A beautifully written book about life, death, trauma, and a refugee's journey from his home.

Nuri, a beekeeper in Aleppo, Syria must decide to flee the war-torn country before it is too late. The story follows Nuri and his family as the Syrian civil war begins and devastates their home and country. You follow the family on a journey where there are no good options, just survival, and possible redemption.

A moving story that humanizes the largest humanitarian disaster in recent memory.

#TheBeekeeperOfAleppo #NetGalley

I have mixed feelings about this book. The writing about the beekeeping is very captivating, but the rest of the tale about the couple escaping violence in Syria is pretty depressing. The wife is blind and doesn't really care if she goes on living or not, she feels like she could die any day. They are driven to escape by the husband desire to survive. There are so many books out there right now about war refugees, and I feel like it's all the same story and this one doesn't bring any new insight into the situation.

I received an advance copy of this book, and from the first page it drew me in. Couldn’t put this book down, How life can change for a family. I forgot how deadly this war was on the people who lived there. Afra and Nuri, two people who you’ll need to see what’s going to happen to them. I hate to give up to much of the plot but It’s a powerful book and one that’s makes one think. I’m sure this will be on the bestseller list for a long time., and it will make a wonderful movie.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

This is a story about Nuri and Afra from Syria. As I was reading this book I was continually checking to see if this was a memoir or fiction. This book is fiction but based on the authors experience at a UNICEF refugee center in Athens, Greece. With all the news stories the last few years of the refugee crisis I don't think you can imagine what it is actually like. Do you think most of these people leave their homes because they want to live elsewhere? This story will stay with you. As a refugee how do you eat, how do you move from place to place. What happens when you are put in a camp--is it safe? This story follows Nuri and Afra from their home in Syria thru different camps in their quest to get to England where Nuri's cousin has already relocated. In Syria Nuri became a beekeeper with his cousin Mustafa and they were very successful. They had a store where they sold Honey and everything they could make with it and life was good. Then the war came, Mustafa and his family left early but Afra wouldn't leave so Nuri stayed with their son Sami. The bombs came and Sami was killed and Afra was blind. In the camps a young boy without any family clung to Nuri and Afra worried that she was losing her husband.
With so many people moving and hungry and broke how do you keep anything you have. Some places there is no cover from the elements you just sleep in the open and hope the gangs don't target you. How do you find a smuggler and how do you pay them? Will they really help or leave you someplace to die?
I have a lot of Empathy for refugees fleeing war and famine but I will look at them differently after reading this book and I think is should be mandatory reading for everyone. I highly recommend this book.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Compelling novel about refugees who escape Syria. It is both heartbreaking and hopeful.

A marvelous, marvelous book. This novel tells the story of a young couple who must leave Syria in order to survive. They hire smugglers who take them to Greece, where they then experience a living hell living in a park with other refugees and plagued by criminals.

The dream sequences of this book are top notch literary fiction. The couple, Nuri and Afra, lost their small son when their home in Aleppo was bombed. The mother becomes blind from the trauma. The father befriends another small boy during their trek, and the boy stays with him as they eventually get to a refugee home in the UK.

The author worked as a volunteer with Syrian refugees in Athens and learned Arabic so that she could speak with the refugees and learn their stories. This is an important book. Highly and strongly recommended.

A beautifully written, haunting story of a a couple trying to survive as refugees. Their memories of life and all that they lost bring you closer to understanding what is seen and unseen in the trauma of war. This book will sit with me for awhile.

In Aleppo, Syria, Nuri the beekeeper lives a simple yet full life. He is married to Afra, an artist, and their son, Sami, is the light of their lives. Of course, this is before Syria’s civil war tears their lives apart and they decide to leave Syria and make their way to the UK where Nuri’s cousin is waiting for them.

Nuri narrates the journey, with timelines alternating between past and present (not in chronological order). His story shows us what life as a refugee means to a person, a couple, a family, a community, a country, indeed the world. Nuri feels like Afra’s “soul is evaporating” and thinks that perhaps he should break her neck, putting her out of her misery and giving her peace. He describes Afra:

“She cried like a child, laughed like bells ringing, and her smile was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. She could argue for hours without ever pausing. Afra loved, she hated and she inhaled the world like it was a rose. All this was why I loved her more than life.”

I was sickened! Did his love turn to hate, or was his love so overwhelming that he wanted to kill her out of desperation to put an end to her suffering? And with each page, the pit in my stomach opened up a little bit more. This is what 13.5 million refugees from Syria must feel. There are some very disturbing storylines that will leave indelible images in your mind. Indeed, Nuri wonders how to be able “to pretend for a moment that I hadn’t seen the things I’d seen.”

This is a haunting novel that will break your heart.

www.candysplanet.wordpress.com

A love story told amidst the oppressive ruble of war. "The Beekeeper of Aleppo" by Christy Lefteri is an authentic, compelling, haunting and unforgettable story centering around the relationship of Nuri a beekeeper and Afra an artist blinded by the atrocity of conflict.

I could not turn away from this story. The way in which the author weaves together the intimate thoughts of the characters with the outward atrocities of a war torn country is astounding. As you enter into the journey of the beautiful and fiercely brave souls, your heart is overwhelmed with empathy and emotion. Simply "The Beekeeper of Aleppo" is a phenomenal story. A tale that should be discussed and shared. Five well deserved, if not more, stars. Well done, Christy Lefteri.

Thank you so much to Random House Ballantine and Netgalley for the advance reader copy of this book. Wow. What a novel. It’s definitely given me a book hangover because I know the next thing I pick up will not compare. I have read a number of refugee novels over the past few years. None of them grabbed me and moved me like this. I feel like my eyes have been opened and I have an entirely different level of empathy and understanding (as much understanding as one can have sitting in my comfy couch in my middle class American life). The writing and descriptions are beautiful done, so vivid I could see everything. This is ironic based on the author’s stated goal of the book, explained in an afterword. I would give this all the stars x 10. Please read this book.

Nuri and his wife, Afra, escape war torn Syria. They make their way through Turkey and Greece in hopes of ultimately gaining asylum in England.

We experience Nuri and Afra’s journey through Nuri’s eyes. The trauma and chaos of war and the way it affects his mental state and their marriage.. We meet other refugees along the way and are privy to some very unsavory situations in the refugee camps. Nuri learns how far these situations can push a human being. The struggle to gain asylum and the powerlessness one feels throughout the process is palpable.

This is an emotional and very dark story at times, but the author’s poetic prose is a pleasure to read throughout. The story felt very authentic. The author’s previous experiences, no doubt, lent to that authenticity. There were some slower parts in the middle, but the story itself and the perspective gained is powerful and very important. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. Highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

This is a beautiful poignant look at the experience of a refuge fleeing from Syria. What does it mean to see? How do different people deal with trauma? As a 2nd generation Syrian American, I was overwhelmed by the tale and imagining the suffering of the Syrian people.