I loved Lefteri's first book, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, and have been looking forward to this one. Like Beekeeper, Lefteri uses her considerable writing talents to create a fictional narrative centered around a nonfiction injustice that exists in our world. Beekeeper focused on Syrian refugees trying to escape to England, while Songbirds is more specific. Through fiction it explores the real-life disappearance of domestic workers in Cyprus--workers who socially subjugated due to their status as migrants and domestic workers who have to work for pay--part of which goes to the employer.

Nisha left her home of Sri Lanka when her own daughter was two to work as a nanny for Petra, a wealthy widow living in Cyprus. Nisha's lover and Petra's upstairs tenant, Yiannis, is a man who, after being laid off, had to turn to poaching to make ends meet. Nisha uses his iPad to talk to her daughter in Sri Lanka and Petra has no clue her nanny and Yiannis are in a relationship. When Nisha disappears one night without her passport or other personal items, Petra and Yiannis become concerned. Nisha's disappearance sets Yiannis and Petra on paths of personal growth, while they try to find out what happened to her.

Through this search, the characters grow/change, with Petra especially (and through her, the reader) awakening to the subjugated lives of migrant domestic workers in Cyprus. Nisha leaves all she knows, including her own child, to work in Cyprus. She sends part of her pay home, but she also has to use some to pay back the employment agency for placing her in Petra's home. When Petra goes to the police about Nisha's disappearance, they're uninterested and do nothing to help . Flyers of Nisha are all over Cyprus but no one, aside from Petra, Yiannis, and other domestic workers, make an effort to find her.

Lefteri's prose is affecting, both emotionally and visually. The descriptions of the birds that Yiannis traps and the small details of the relationships between the main characters are presented delicately and beautifully. The echoes of real life that are presented here--the dismissiveness of police in regards to migrant workers, Petra's distanced relationship from her child, the horrific way some domestic workers are treated by their bosses--are devastating and may make the book too heavy for some readers. As well-written and engaging as the storylines and Lefteri's prose are, it's still a difficult subject and can, at times, be presented by Lefteri in a didactical sort of way. That doesn't mean the story shouldn't be told--it absolutely should--it just takes away from the theme of hope in the face of tragedy that runs through the novel.

Even with the heartbreaking subject matter and the occasional preachy tone, I really liked this book. Quiet yet powerful, it concurrently broadened my knowledge about the life experiences of others in this world and mended my broken heart with themes of hope and solace. I'm thankful that Lefteri brought eloquence, humanity, and grace to this tough story.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

This is a beautifully written, devastating story about the disappearance of a migrant domestic worker in Cyprus. The author's choice to tell Nisha's story through the voices of two people who felt her absence was highly effective. The prose was lyrical but not overly so. I also appreciated the author's note at the end which explains the heartbreaking real-life circumstances that inspired the novel. Highly recommend!

A beautiful, intimate look at the life, sacrifices, and relationships of a foreign nanny. While I enjoyed learning about Nisha’s story, there was nearly no plot progression whatsoever. For much of the book I was waiting for it to turn into a mystery/thriller, as the audience continued to wonder what was going on for 95% of the book. No excitement, minimal enjoyment. While the writing was beautiful, it just didn’t have enough to say. This could have made an impactful essay or short story, but there just wasn’t enough happening for it to be a full novel.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Having read Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo and found it to be an amazing story of sadness and resilience of spirit in the most difficult of circumstances, I wondered if she could again create a masterpiece. She can and did. Songbirds is a story of a widowed migrant worker, Nisha, who is from Sri Lanka and comes to Cyrus to work as a nanny and maid for Petra who is also widowed. Nisha sends her money home to support her daughter who is living with relatives. As with many migrants in the world’s history, they are treated almost like slaves and not really human beings. Petra does not really think much about Nisha until one day when Nisha disappears. The police aren’t really interested in Nisha, so Petra steps up and launches a search. Yiannis, Petra’s upstairs tenant and a songbird trapper, is in love with Nisha. It was very difficult to read about poaching the songbirds.

Lefteri definitely proved to me that she is a master storyteller and definitely exposes the very difficult circumstances migrant workers live under. I think this is the perfect book for a book club. I am going to have a book hangover for quite awhile. My thanks to Random House-Ballantine for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri is the story behind the headlines. Nisha Jayakody is living on the island of Cyprus, far from her native Sri Lanka. Though she longs to return home to her own daughter, she knows that working as a nanny and maid for Petra Loizides, a wealthy widow, is helping her earn enough to support her daughter back home. Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe, to sell them on the black market. He dreams of finding a new way of life and marrying Nisha. One night, after tucking Petra’s daughter, Aliki into bed, Nisha goes out on a mysterious errand and disappears. Despite Petra’s concern, the police refuse to pursue the case, so she and Yiannis take matters into their own hands. Petra learns the darker side of a migrant’s life where impossible choices leave them vulnerable and trapped, and realized how little she knew Nisha, the woman who helped her through her darkest days. Will Nisha be found? Where did she go?
After reading and loving Christy Lefteri’s book, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, I eagerly took the chance to read Songbirds. Inspired by the real disappearance of domestic workers in Cyprus, Songbirds is a moving and deeply empathetic story of the human stories beyond the headlines. With tenderness and beauty I expect from Ms. Lefteri, Songbirds is a haunting story of those who live on the outside of our daily lives. I thoroughly enjoyed Petra as she discovered how little she showed her appreciation for Nisha and desperately searched for her. She would not stop until she found Nisha. Ms. Lefteri’s descriptions move between beautifully lyrical and disturbingly descriptive, especially as she describes how Yiannis captures the birds and prepares them for market. It is a mystery that will keep the reader guessing. At its worst, it is a story of prejudice, racism and misogyny. However, in the end, at its best, it is a story of the fight for truth and justice for all who live in our midst, not just the ones society deems are worthy. I highly recommend Songbirds.

Songbirds is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook.

DNF @20%
This was just not for me - I am gobsmacked that this is the same author that wrote "The Beekeeper of Aleppo"; all of the beauty and lyricalness that was that book is completely missing here [and yes I know they are different books, but that book was also horrific and yet was also totally beautiful and moving and this is...not], and the horror of the songbird massacre over and over will never leave me [having read many stories about refugees, I find it easier to read stories about just that - I don't need a graphic, horrific allegory to prove a point]. I get what the author is trying to accomplish here and she does to a certain degree, but not in a good way - it beats you over the head to the point that you don't care about Nishia and the rest and only care about NEVER EVER reading about the brutal killing of birds for money ever again; You realize that you are only feeling and seeing the horror of the birds and totally miss the humanity and desperation of the people. It was very frustrating. I was unable to finish this book as I was starting to dream about dead birds and that was just too upsetting for me.
I am extremely disappointed as I was really looking forward to this - I am sure there will be many that will love this, but it is just too brutal and also boring [in between the brutal parts] for me to continue.

Thank you to NetGalley, Christy Lefteri, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Ballantine Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As the world we live in splits open to reveal what many painstakingly experience, Christy Lefteri’s new novel Songbirds uncovers the deep wounds hasty judgment, unfounded prejudice, and sweeping generalization can create. This breathtaking novel acts both as salve and tourniquet, meant to treat and stop the bloodshed, or, at the very least, demands pause on one’s ‘righteous’ path toward punishment of difference. This brilliant and beautiful story invites readers into deep explorations of our Earth’s creatures, colors, landscapes, grounding them in the harsh realities of systemic racism, entrapment, and violence against women. This novel comes at a time ripe for reckoning: with ourselves, our relationships with others, and the ideological frameworks of which we are a part.

While Lefteri skillfully utilizes multiple points-of-view as narrative technique in Songbirds, the story belongs to Nisha, a woman forced to leave her home and two-year-old daughter in Sri Lanka in search of financial stability after the death of her husband. Nisha becomes a migrant domestic worker in Nicosia, Cyprus, responsible for the care of her employer Petra’s home, as well as her newborn daughter. Nisha’s infusion in their family and Cypriot life over ten years stands in stark contrast to that of her life in Sri Lanka, but the parallels of plight between Nisha and Petra, both dynamic women and mothers, are palpable. Additionally, the perspective of Yiannis, Petra’s tenant who resides upstairs, is honest and heartbreaking. As a songbird poacher, Yiannis’s illegal work is at odds with the man devoted to Nisha. Upon Nisha’s sudden disappearance, it is Petra and Yiannis’s interwoven journeys to discover truth that capture the essence of the novel. Lefteri’s emotional perspectivism gently forces readers to question their own ignorance, their unknowing, for themselves and their relationships. Petra and Yiannis’s continual and unapologetic questioning of self and system is monumental, a reminder of the courage necessary for change.

In the tradition of her debut novel, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Songbirds further demonstrates Lefteri’s ability to humanize complexity in relationships, both with others and ourselves. It is Nisha’s disappearance that initiates introspection, as readers must explore, alongside the characters Petra and Yiannis, the realities for migrant workers, the racism, entrapment, and even fetishism. Stripped of their previous identities, migrants work for others and for the future, for release from generational poverty, and for the very people they leave behind. However, it is Petra’s line of questioning, both of her own previously held assumptions and the systems of which she is a part, where her complexity is revealed. Upon further investigation, Petra admits she had not really seen these working women and had never asked the tough questions of herself prior to Nisha’s disappearance. Once Petra decides to report Nisha as a missing person, the detective’s harsh commentary highlights the plight of international migrant workers: “‘I can’t concern myself with these foreign women. I have more important matters to attend to . . . These women are animals, they follow their instincts. Or the money, more likely . . . If she’s not back by the end of the week, call up the agency to find another maid.’” It is here Lefteri complicates Petra, as she quickly learns that her quiet resignation of social milieu causes women and mothers like Nisha to become invisible and replaceable within communities, hidden from view by assumptions and inequities within deeply corrupt systems.

Through her revered depictions of nature, Lefteri pays homage to our own daily migration into the sacred lands, airs, and waterways of our ancestral homes. Specifically, color imagery stands out – golden eyes, red sunsets, black skies – and helps to paint the majestic yet harsh landscape of Nisha’s adopted Cyprus. Lefteri’s critique of human interference with natural processes can border on didactic, although her consternation is lessened by the dire impetus for action. Petra’s recollection of her father’s teachings, brought to life through memory, illustrates a commonality we must desperately acknowledge:

...I could almost hear my father’s voice: Since it came to Earth, the water has been cycling through air, rocks, animals and plants. Each molecule has been on an incredible journey. When you feel alone, try to remember that at some point the water inside you would have been inside dinosaurs, or the ocean, or a polar ice cap, or maybe a storm cloud over a faraway sea at a time when that sea was still nameless. Water crosses millennia and boundaries and borders . . . Remember we all have something in common, and that is the water that runs through us.

Songbirds reminds us that through sight and sound, watching and listening, we can learn much with nature as our guide. If we’d only scrutinize our own border crossings into the natural world as intensively as we do those of others migrating onto ‘our’ lands for a multitude of reasons, we might be able to better grasp the shared humanity that embraces us all.

Despite the fast pacing and abrupt ending, the denouement shines. The conclusion of Songbirds will break hearts; chests may heave; at some moments readers may find it necessary to exhale, unaware we were holding our breaths. Wherever our visceral reactions may lead, this novel’s conclusion challenges our own beliefs and splits wide open our ugly, flawed systems for all to see. This brave work roots out apathy and encourages us to take part, to march on, and to move the needle. The power of the people is in our humanity, a shared understanding for the betterment of all. In the words of the migrant women standing together: “Here we are," they were saying. "We do not simply appear from nowhere in a taxi with a suitcase and disappear once more to nowhere. We are human. We love. We hate. We have pasts. We have futures. We are citizens of countries, in our own right. We have voices. We have families. Here we are.” Lefteri’s Songbirds reminds us it’s best to look inward and start the work there. It will never work to silence those in the margins. Our anthem: Here. We. Are.

Everything about Songbirds is beautiful, the writing, the characters, the setting, the story, but it is so sad. Like her previous book, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri tells the story of people who are unseen and don't matter to much of the world. Her characters are so full of life and their stories will touch your heart. This book also delivers an important message about humanity, who matters in this world and who should matter. This book will break your heart, but make you more aware of the injustices in the world.

“Life can change in a second..” How can we live with someone and never actually see them? How can we have to piece their lives together through the memories of others once we’ve lost them? In a world of domestic workers and their employers, this is all too normal.
Set in Cyprus and told through the memories of two imperfect characters, Lefteri builds the story of Nisha, a woman who has the right to her own life, but is trapped by the racism, prejudices and ideologies of a more comfortable people. The plot not only unravels a mystery, inspired by true events, it is soaked in culture, beliefs, mythology and meaning.
Songbirds is a lyrically written break from the ordinary, a poignant and thoughtful story of attempting to find one's freedom and learning to understand each other as human beings with commonalities.

Christy Lefteri’s writing is absolutely exquisite. When it comes to the art of writing I am blown away by the poetic nature and lyrical style of her writing. After reading this one and The BeeKeeper of Aleppo there is definitely something somber and intimate about her writing. I have to admit you need to be fully charged when reading her books. I usually read at night and due to the lyrical nature of this book I kept falling asleep!
You really need to be fully present when reading her books.

This story focuses on migrate domestic workers that come to the island of Cyprus for work opportunities. These women really come out of desperation to help support their family back home and many find they are trapped, treated terribly, and stripped of their rights. The novel focuses on a migrate maid/nanny named Nisha that leaves Sri Lanka so she can provide for her family back home.
Nisha along with 2 other migrant women and 2 children suddenly disappear. You learn not only about Nisha through the people that knew her but also about others just like her. There is a lot of introspection and despair in this book—so not a light read. But it is such a poignant and moving story that really addresses systematic racism and prejudices that are embedded in society.

I love Lefteri’s activism and commitment to spreading awareness in her writing. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a book about refugees leaving their country due to persecution and this book is about migrant workers leaving not out of force but really because of lack of opportunities at home and in many ways a means to survive—desperation to provide for their families.

Personal thoughts-When I visited family in Lebanon when was 18 I noticed many people around me including family had domestic workers from countries like Sri Lanka. It was so common. I remember wondering how do they visit their family? I couldn’t imagine being a mother and being apart from my children for years. This book has given me a better understanding of what many of these women had to sacrifice.

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri covers some very dark topics and happenings, but does so in such a beautiful way. Lefteri's prose is like birdsong. Her pen sings lyrically when she puts it to paper. Songbirds is about a domestic worker in Cyprus, and how unseen domestic workers have become in that country. Using the missing Cypriot workers of 2019 who fell prey to a serial killer as her inspiration, we anxiously await word of Nisha, who has mysteriously disappeared in our book. I was wholly invested in the characters within, even as I cringed at their thoughts and actions. This is not a pleasant story, but it is musical in its writing, thought-provoking in its exploration of humanity and what we allow ourselves to see and to not see. Lefteri will have another international bestseller on her curriculum vitae with this one! Highly recommend!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC of the Songbirds. One of the best books of racism I’ve read this year. The writing is awesome and the subject matter is so relevant to today!
At first I was very confused as to which character things were being talked about but that is because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to who the chapter was about. Songbirds by Christi Lefteri is an amazing book inspired on the domestic help and their lack of legal support in Cyprus. Nisha is, a single mom from Sri Lanka has come as a domestic to Cyprus to provide financial assistance to her Mother. To do this she has to leave her daughter, Kumani, with her mom and is a virtual mom through the screen. Nisha disappears one night and no one can find her, the police won’t even investigate because she is what is called a migrant domestic. This is a hard book to read but so awakening to the inhumane attention to people around the world. Christina says it best in her Authors Note: “Songbirds is a story about migration and crossing borders. It is about searching for freedom, for a better life, only to find oneself trapped. It is about the way in which systemic racism exists, often unquestioned, relying upon prejudice and nationalistic ideals to survive. It is a story about learning to see each and every human being in the same way as we see ourselves.”
Well done Ms Lefteri. I’m looking forward to your next book.
#Netgalley #BallentineBooks

Even though it’s been nearly two years since I read Christy Lefteri’s award-winning second novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo, one of the things that has continued to stay with me whenever I think of that book is the affecting, haunting nature of the story. While I might not remember every detail of the plot, I do remember the gut-wrenching emotions that the story evoked. I was moved by Nuri’s and Afra’s heartrending story detailing their harrowing journey from war-torn Syria to Great Britain, trying their best to survive as refugees in a foreign and not necessarily welcoming country. Lefteri’s newest work, Songbirds, is written in a similar vein — a poignant, heartbreaking story that centers on foreign domestic workers on the Greek island of Cyprus.

Nisha Jayakody is a young Sri Lankan widow who, forced by the circumstances of dire poverty and desperation as well as a desire to provide a better life for her beloved daughter Kumari, signs up with an agency that places her as a maid and nanny for Petra, a pregnant businesswoman living on Cyprus whose husband had also just died. In addition to taking care of Petra’s household, Nisha also helps raise Petra’s daughter Aliki. Yiannis is a poacher who secretly traps songbirds, a protected species, and sells them on the black market. After meeting and falling in love with Nisha, Yiannis longs to get out of the dangerous, illegal trade he is in and marry the woman he loves. But it is not that easy — due to Nisha’s status as a foreign maid, her life actually doesn’t belong to her, but rather to her employer, who has the right to fire Nisha if her relationship with Yiannis were discovered. Like so many of her fellow domestic worker friends, Nisha has few options and while she is treated well by Petra, their relationship is a perfunctory one in that Petra knows nearly nothing about this woman who had taken such good care of her and raised as well as loved her daughter as her own. It is not until one night, when Nisha goes out and doesn’t return, effectively vanishing into thin air, that Petra and Yiannis understand not just the profound impact Nisha had on their lives, but also the reality of who she was as a person.

Though the story here is about Nisha, the narrative is actually told from the alternating perspectives of Petra and Yiannis. Lefteri writes in her author’s note that this way of telling Nisha’s story — the piecing “together of her existence through the memories of others” — was deliberate, and after understanding what Lefteri was trying to do, it made me appreciate the story more (I highly recommend reading the Author’s Note after finishing the book, as Lefteri discusses the inspiration behind the story — it’s definitely not to be missed!). One of the things I love about this story is the fact that it gives a chance for the voices of the most vulnerable to be heard as well as understood — in this way, I found Nisha and her story to be tremendously powerful.

Having said all that, while I did find this story to be both moving and heart wrenching, I felt it didn’t quite reach the level of emotional depth that The Beekeeper of Aleppo did. Of course, that’s not to say that Songbirds wasn’t an emotional experience because it definitely was —but it didn’t leave me speechless like Lefteri’s previous work did. Nevertheless, it’s still a beautifully written, absolutely worthy read, one that I highly recommend. A word of caution though: there are some scenes that describe cruelties done to the songbirds that are troubling and difficult to read — for those who might be bothered by these types of depictions, might be a good idea to gloss over them (luckily those scenes are few and far between).

Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.

A beautifully crafted piece of literature. This is a well-written expose on the life of an immigrant domestic worker. Although the setting is Cyprus it could have been easily been any other country that employs an influx of domestic workers from marginalized countries. The analogy between the songbirds and Nisha and the maids singing until they take their last breath is so poignant. It is a sad, but hopeful story because she was deeply loved by those who knew her and she brought about change in many peoples lives.

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri

Songbirds brings to light the plight of migrant domestic workers in Cyprus and the writing of this story was partly influenced by real life events, where five migrant domestic worker women and two children went missing. Their disappearances were ignored because they were foreign, and it was only when one of the bodies was found two years later that the murders of these women and children were brought to light. In this story, thirty eight year old Nisha left her native Sri Lanka, nine years ago, to find work in Cypress so that she could earn money to support her daughter who she had to leave with relatives in Sri Lanka.

Nisha's life is made up of working from 6am to 7pm, six days a week, and during her off time her employer, Petra, requires her to rest in her room so she will be fresh for her domestic duties. There is no hope of seeing her daughter in person, no hope of having time that belongs to herself, no hope of being more than a servant with no voice, in a household that takes her for granted. Petra even seems happy that she knows nothing about Nisha, that she's there to do her bidding, day in, day out. It's not until Nisha disappears one night that Petra begins her search for Nisha and begins to realize that Nisha is a real person, with feelings, family, and desires.

Nisha's lover is Yiannis and he asks her to marry him. But then Nisha is gone and he cannot let go of her. He had opened up to her and described his job as a poacher of songbirds and he knows he shattered her view of him forever. It is Yiannis's job as a poacher, with vivid and horrifying descriptions of the mass destruction of the songbirds (by hands and mouth), that made it hard for me to continue reading this book. I know that others have been able to get past this part of the book but my mind could hardly take in the rest of the story as I still can't let go of the descriptions of Yiannis poaching.

When Nisha disappears, and both Petra and Yiannis notify authorities, her disappearance it completely dismissed. She's a migrant domestic worker from another country and as far as the authorities are concerned, she's "moved on". Nothing about her is considered, she's a nobody, there are so many more workers looking for jobs, who cares that one worker is gone now. She does not matter to those with the power to do anything about her disappearance.

This story has it's beauty and it's message. The plight of the songbirds parallels the plight of the migrant domestic workers in many ways. I bring up the incredibly disturbing descriptions of brutality and destruction for those who have trouble reading such things, as I do.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was such a beautifully heartbreaking story that I couldn't put it down. I like how the author takes a real life event to spin this story & inform us of this awful occurrence. I needed to know what happened to Nisha. I also loved reading more about Petra, Aliki, Kumari, & Yiannis. I highly recommend reading this book so you can find out who these people are & the story they have to tell.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

I cannot remember the last time a book made me cry. This book was phenomenal. I did not know much about the disappearances of domestic workers in Cyprus, and really appreciated the Author's Note that Lefteri included. The choice to have the story narrated by Petra and Yiannis, two people who knew Nisha in very different ways was great for the story. We never have Nisha's perspective and we learn who she is from two people who played important roles in her life. We learn who she is as the story progresses, as well as new information when Petra and Yiannis learn new things.

This is a mysterious, emotional, dark story that will stay with you for a long time. Would highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Out on August 3rd.

I was provided a free copy of this from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
This is the second book I've read by Christy Lefteri, and just as with Beekeeper of Aleppo this brings to light a less known/talked about topic.
Set in Cyprus where birds (and people) migrate and get caught up in the traps that are ready to ensnare them. When Nisha, a Sri Lankan maid, disappears one night her employer, Petra, and boyfriend, Yiannis, try to find out what happened.
Although Nisha has lived with her for nine years and raised her daughter, Petra begins to realize she never knew or truly appreciated this woman she had entrusted with so much, and that they were very similar in many ways!
Based on real events in Cyprus and around the world, we see how foreign workers are often mistreated, ignored, and not allowed a voice.
While I think the topic is an important one, I didn't connect with the story. I didn't find Petra or Yiannis that likeable and struggled a bit to get through it. Others have rated it a lot higher, so if this sounds like something you might enjoy, give it a try!
It is scheduled to be published 3 August 2021, so add it to your TBR!
#Songbirds #NetGalley

Well don’t read the ending when you are at a pedicure chair, because your nail technician might think that she did something wrong and that’s why you are crying! Fate of immigrants are same everywhere. They move to different places to get better jobs and give their people a better life elsewhere. But if something happens to them, the officials of very same countries milking their efforts won’t give a damn about damn. Especially if those workers are women; because you know women are not trustworthy (!) and if they go missing, it must be because of their nature…

Nisha is a nanny of a little girl in Cyprus. This girl is no different to her than her own child. She spent all the days she couldn’t spend with her kid with this girl. Her employer is not like others who might pretty much use foreigners as slaves. She is good woman who lost her husband before her child was born. They have a understanding: Nisha is the mum and mum is the breadwinner. One day Nisha disappears without saying goodbye. Now it’s up to breadwinner mum to be the real mum and find out what happened to her right hand, her daughter’s beloved second mum.

It’s a tragic story as much as a satire. It shouldn’t require people to disappear or something bad happens to them before someone actually starts caring about them. Just because people are away from their own land shouldn’t mean they should be treated like they are no one and worth no one’s attention. I found this story very heartbreaking but at the same time extremely troubling. If you are interested in immigrant stories, pick it up!