Lefteri: Songbirds

Product Description From the bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, a powerful story about love, loss, hope and courage, set in the lush forests of Cyprus. Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe, and killing them with his bare hands to be sold illegally as a local delicacy. He dreams of finding a new way of life, and of marrying Nisha, who works as a nanny to Angela and lives in the apartment below his. Angela is Nisha's surrogate daughter - she has left her own child behind in Sri Lanka when she came to Cyprus to find work. Angela's mother Petra is jealous of Angela and Nisha's bond, but feels powerless to love her own child in the way she thinks she should. When Nisha disappears, Yiannis is heartbroken and convinced he has driven her away. Petra is forced to become a mother again to Angela, who seems to hold the secret of what has become of Nisha. Review Christy Lefteri has crafted a beautiful novel, intelligent, thoughtful, and relevant. I'm recommending this book to everyone I care about. So, I'm recommending this book to you * Benjamin Zephaniah on The Beekeeper of Aleppo * The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a story of loss, love, resilience and hope. In the same school as The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Kite Runner, it's impossible not to be moved by Lefteri's plea for humanity and perhaps inspired too * The Observer, on The Beekeeper of Aleppo * A hugely important novel for our times, this is a beautifully written and poignant tale of the best and worst of humanity * Sun, on The Beekeeper of Aleppo * Powerful, thought-provoking and beautifully crafted . . . unforgettable * Choice Magazine, on The Beekeeper of Aleppo * Courageous, proactive, haunting * Heather Morris, on The Beekeeper of Aleppo * From the Back Cover The heartbreaking follow-up to the million copy bestseller, The Beekeeper of Aleppo 'I've never read anything quite like Songbirds - a beautifully crafted novel that sits at the intersection of race and class' Jodi Picoult She walks unseen through our world. Cares for our children, cleans our homes. Her voice unheard. She has a story to tell. Will you listen? Nisha has crossed oceans to give her child a future. By day she cares for Petra's daughter; at night she mothers her own little girl by the light of a phone. Nisha's lover, Yiannis, is a poacher, hunting the tiny songbirds on their way to Africa each winter. His dreams of a new life, and of marrying Nisha, are shattered when she vanishes. No one cares about the disappearance of a domestic worker, except Petra and Yiannis. As they set out to search for her, they realise how little they know about Nisha. What they uncover will change them all. Set in her native Cyprus, Christy Lefteri has crafted a powerful, redemptive story of loss, of the triumph of the human spirit, and of the enduring love of a mother for her child. About the Author Brought up in London, Christy Lefteri is the child of Cypriot refugees. She is a lecturer in creative writing at Brunel University. The Beekeeper of Aleppo was born out of her time working as a volunteer at a Unicef supported refugee centre in Athens.