The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy LefteriMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
*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.
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