This is another novel told in non-linear fashion but it was relatively easy to follow. The time jumps of past memories usually made sense. It took me awhile to realize which were memories and which were present time.

This is the story of a Syrian family forced to flee their home, and the beekeeping business the protagonist Nuri runs with his older cousin Mustafa.

Lost a star due to a rape that I felt was unnecessary to the plot. I wish people would stop using rape as a plot point.

Recommended for those who like refugee fiction.

I did not finish this book, but not because of the writing. The writing was beautiful. The topic of refugees was too depressing for me and probably for my book group. I will purchase it, however, because this book might find its reader.

Oh man, this book tugged at my heart strings. In Christy Lefteri’s novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo we journey through a Syrian war with Nuri Ibrahim and his wife, Afra. Fleeing from for asylum in the UK Nuri and Afra travel thousands of miles through chaos in Turkey and Greece and end up in a refugee camp as they wait for the proper documents to gain asylum. Alternating between present day England and Syria, this story of survival and second chances will have you on the edge of your seats.

Lefteri is the daughter of two war-affected parents. She spent time in a refugee camp, were she assisted families who arrived from Syria and Afghanistan. Beautifully written and mesmerizing the end will have you pull out the tissues, this is a must read. Thank you, Netgalley & Random House Publishing, for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. 4 out of 5 stars.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a heartbreakingly beautiful story. There is trauma, sacrifice, tragedy, but the beauty is in the overcoming, hope, and strength. The writing is poetic and tender. I found myself rereading lines because the some descriptions were so lovely. The past and present is artfully woven together in a unique way, and the story unfolds little by little. My heart ached for the terrible circumstances that many Syrians face and the violence and fear that permeates their lives. I liked how the vulnerability of bees mirrored those seeking asylum and how kindness and care is something that would aid both. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a book I highly recommend for historical fiction fans who enjoy learning about other cultures.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo
By Cristy Lefteri
7/7/19

What a beautifully written, haunting novel about individuals caught up in the Syrian refugee crisis. Though the book does not give any insight into politics or the cause of the crisis, it describes the hardship of various refugees throughout their journey to freedom. Coincidentally, I read this book right after reading, The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo See, a true account of her flight from North Korea, and though that was a memoir, many facts in Beekeeper were similar and thus felt very genuine.

I was repeatedly struck by how long the journey to freedom could be, with many not ever reaching safety. The waiting felt endless, and often the journey felt hopeless. The corruption and bribes that were necessary in their flight left me feeling so sad for the many who don’t have those resources. And I recognize how fortunate I am to live in a safe country with resources.

I really loved the characters, Nuri, the beekeeper, and his wife Afra, an artist, as well as Nuri’s cousin and fellow beekeeper, Mustafa, whose emails kept Nuri’s dream of freedom alive. Lefteri did a wonderful job showing the trauma that these characters had been through, and then flipping my preconceived notions about strength, coping and PTSD on its head. We know that the couple arrives safely in England, as the book begins there, as they await their asylum, and that knowledge comforted me when all seemed lost.

The references to the art of beekeeping were interesting, and I loved the little “refugee” bee who lost his wings, but was still able to survive thanks to friends providing the right environment.

My thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in any way

This is an amazing, beautifully written novel of Nuri and Afra, a beekeeper and his wife, who are Syrian refugees. The novel puts a face on the sorrow and hardships that refugees endure. There's incredible sadness, but also amazing resilience in this story. Your heart aches for these characters, but the novelists shows the strength of the human spirit. . The metaphor of the bee is incredible. Everyone should read this incredible book. Thank you NetGalley for the copy.

A tale of tragedy and survival of a Syrian family who runs from persecution to Great Britain. The story of their lives is told in strands from the past and the present, and the life of bees plays heavily into their human story. A fascinating tale of determination, sorrow and hope, The Beekeeper of Aleppo is one to read.

Christy Lefteri has written a heartwrenching story about the plight of Syrian refugees. It was not easy to read about conditions in a country that is imploding with hate and fear. She writes with sympathetic detail all that can happen to people who just want to live without the threat of death invading their daily life. Her characters are skillfully created to show the effect of repeated trauma.

Nuri had a good life as a beekeeper. His family built a successful business by understanding how the hives were structured. The health of the hive depended on the different types of bees all doing their separate jobs. Nuri loved his bees, his wife and son and his life was very good. Then came the civil unrest that destroyed his life and his country.

This is an important subject and I congratulate Ms Lefteri on a well written story. I received an Advanced Readers Copy from Ballantine Books through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.
#TheBeekeeperOfAleppo #NetGalley

4.5. A hauntingly realistic portrayal of the plight of refugees, making the painful decision whether to flee their Syrian ancestral homeland. Reading this novel, all I could think of is this could happen anywhere to anyone. In this case, it is the story of Nuri, a beekeeper in Aleppo, Syria and his wife, Afra. They are people like any of us, living a very peaceful and well to do existence with their family and friends until the Syrian war reaches their backyard and home. Nuri and Afra are not economic refugees. It is a story of their reluctant decision to leave their homeland and undertake a long, arduous, dangerous, and almost impossible trek to reach England, where their friends settled not too long before them. They go from Turkey, then to Greece, and eventually to England where they requested asylum. Their tragedy started in Syria but followed them along their journey. On their journey, they confront prejudice, abysmal conditions, and unspeakable crimes. Both Afra and Nuri suffer from post traumatic stress, in different ways, but all resulting from the atrocities they saw at home and on their journey. The story is poignant, painful, powerful, gripping, and tortured. It is a novel of loss, tragedy, courage, resilience and love. It is the story of what one does to survive impossible conditions. The characters are all realistically portrayed and vividly well defined. In my view, a must read to understand the perils of civil war and reasons for leaving one’s beloved and ancestral homeland in addition to the painful decisions and risks people take to leave their home. I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When did you last fear for your life? Fear seems to be the logical consequence when placed in an environment like Nuri the beekeeper. He has watched atrocities happen in Syria, and is confronted by perpetrators. They tell him, if he does not join them the next time they meet, he would be shot on the spot. When he tells his wife Afra about this, she stops hoping for their child to return, and fears for him. This prompts their fleeing in the direction of Europe. Afra has gone blind because of what transpired in Syria.

What ensues, is a heartbreaking attempt to make it to the UK as refugees. The hardships the refugees face on their journey’s are terrible, but some of the most traumatizing experiences are insinuated more than explicitly described. The trauma numbs the refugees and makes them eventually question their judgement. Throughout their journey, many experiences are described in vivid detail, focusing on everything but the visual appearance, when Nuri describes it to Afra.

This story might be a work of fiction, but reading it made it feel incredibly plausible. With said plausibility comes the burden of knowing how many refugees are likely to have experienced stories just as heartbreaking, just as terrifying and scarring.

So much to love about this book. Rich in depth and beautifully written. This novel follows a beekeeper and his blind wife who flee their native homeland of Syria to escape the horrors of the civil war. The author's vivid descriptions and writing makes me feel as if I am a part of their life and I am enduring these hardships along with them. She has a unique way of linking the two time periods that the story is being told - the journey out of Aleppo and then their struggle in finding a refuge and adapting to a new life.

I had so many emotions reading this, knowing that stories such as these have happened. Loss, love, resilience, courage. 5 beautiful stars.

Thank you to Random House Publishing for an advanced copy of this book.

This novel is a horrific story of a Syrian family trying to escape from Aleppo and work its way through Turkey, Greece, and eventually England. Nuri is a beekeeper who was taught his profession by his cousin, Mustapha. He is married to Afra, an artist and they had a child Sami. The plot jumps back and forth from their location in Aleppo or Turkey or Greece to England where they are applying for asylum. Afra has been blinded - just how we are not sure- and their child Sami has died from a bombing- the same event that brought on her blindness.
The characters, particularly that of Nuri, are well drawn and the descriptions and dreaming of life as a beekeeper are beautifully rendered. The smugglers, thieves, and charity workers who one expect to appear in this type of story are brought in and we feel the tension and fear of the couple. As we read of their plight, the migrant experience all over the world and now in particular at the southern border of the US is telling.
The organization of the book is somewhat confusing. In the middle of chapters dealing with the couple in Greece or Turkey the author without warning jumps to England. The book itself is thus an immediate spoiler because we know they have safely reached England while we are still dealing with their plight wondering whether and how they will get to their next stop. Had this disturbing structure not been used it would have been rated higher. I received this through Netgalley as an ARC.

4.5 stars
This is the story of Nuri and Afra, who leave Syria to escape the violence and tragedy there. Although this is a fictional account, it is heavily based on the author’s own experiences, including the time she spent working at a refugee camp in Greece. This is a beautiful story of the refugee experience. It really put me in their shoes and helped me to better understand what refugees go through and why they go through it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book is going to stick with me for a very, very long time. It absolutely gutted me. And broke my heart. Repeatedly.

Definitely a book needed for our time. Uplifting and keen. A story that will resonate with anyone who seen the least bit of news lately.

Haunting. Hard to read at times due to the emotions it evoked. It brought the stories on the news to life and give me a new appreciation for the hardship the refugees must be suffering through.

I have a new perspective on the Syrian refugees and their plight. The book was very disjointed though and I had trouble keeping up with where it had jumped too. It had a good and satisfying ending.

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.