The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri — a test of human endurance
The Beekeeper of Aleppo shows the human side of migration; a dimension noticeably absent in the political rhetoric that has dominated UK news channels in the last few weeks.
Behind the statistics bandied about so readily by those politicians, are people. Individuals who, for one reason or another, have left their homeland and travelled thousands of miles in search of a new life in another country.
Christy Lefteri’s narrative is based on the story of one such couple.
Nuri Ibrahim and his wife Afra live in the Syrian city of Aleppo with their only son Sami. Nuri works as a beekeeper with his cousin Mustafa, travelling into the mountains every morning to tend to his hives while his wife paints. Their simple life is ruptured by a civil war that claims their son’s life and causes Afra to lose her sight.
Having lost everything that has given them meaning and purpose, Nuri and Afra decide they must leave Syria and embark on a harrowing, traumatic journey through Turkey and Greece to the UK. Each stage of their journey is fraught with danger and obstacles in the shape of drug dealers, people smugglers and bureaucracy.
All they want is to feel safe but their life is full of unknowns. Nuri’s cousin Mustafa has already made it to the UK but there is no certainly that Nuri and Afra will be similarly successful. Even if they make it to the UK, they may not be granted the asylum that will permit them to stay in the country.
We know from very early on in the book that they do get to the UK though but we don’t know how they get there. In a run down boarding house in Brighton, they, and other refugees face a long and laborious wait to be granted asylum.
With Afra still in shock from her son’s death, it’s Nuri who has to stay strong for both of them but he too is broken by everything they have experienced and witnessed.
Psychological Damage
The couple’s psychological trauma is the most powerful, deeply moving aspect of this novel. In the UK, Afra withdraws into herself, unable to do more than sit on their bed and play with a coloured marble. Nuri’s suffering manifests itself in his inability to distinguish between what is real and what is imagination.
When he sees the seagulls swooping around the boarding house, his traumatised brain thinks they are white planes, dropping bombs all around him.
Four white rockets, falling towards the sea, catching the sun on their wingless bodies, as if they are beautiful. They fall and fall, there’s no stopping them, they won;t turn and fly away, there is only one path. I have seen this before. Many times before. Except, then, I waited for them to crash onto the land, onto hills and rooftops and homes and mosques, onto flowers and monuments, memories and treasures, sending smoke and souls up into the sky.
Lefteri’s novel has a most unusual structure. Nuri’s present day narrative often comes. to an end mid sentence, one or two words on the following page connecting it to the next section which is in flashback.
An an example, page 14 which is set in Brighton ends: “He tells me that he picked it off the lemon tree in .…” The next page bears just one word Aleppo before the narrative gets picked up again on the following page …...”was all dust.” which takes us back in time.
This device was disconcerting at first but actually worked really well to reflect how, for Nuri ,past and present have rolled into one.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo is an incredibly moving and poignant book about people stretched to the limits of endurance. If it was simply a work of fiction it would be powerful but what gives it even more impact is that the book was inspired by the traumatic experiences that Christy Lefteri heard while working as a volunteer at a refugee camp in Greece.
That was in 2016 but it’s dispiriting to think that so little has changed in the last seven years. People displaced by civil war are still made to jump through hoops to find a welcome and a place of safety in another land.
hopewellslibraryoflife
Interesting review. I’m pretty sure I own this one. Sometimes, when I see the floods of people in Europe or at our Mexican border I think we are seeing revenge for colonialism. Then I realize it is just people who earn way, way too little money and have no hope what-so-ever where they are from. So sad. That said, an open border here in the USA–I can’t imagine, but we must fix our ridiculous system so that it works with today’s level of applicants for immigration or refugee status. And, how do we allow people to have pride in their heritage, but come together as one country when we have are in a point in the cycle of history when everyone is threatened by “them” coming to “hurt” “us”? And, when we have a Congress that can’t even elect a speaker, let alone come together to govern for the good of citizens, let alone those seeking to be citizens? Sorry…long ramble….
BookerTalk
The more our world becomes one of a huge divide between those who have money, shelter, hope and those who have nothing, the more we will see mass movements of people. What angers me is to see governments of countries whose population live in dire poverty, drive around in luxury cars and living in luxury homes and wasting it on vanity projects (like India’s space programme). Then they point the finger at the developed world and say its not doing enough to help.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Sounds still very timely, alas…
BookerTalk
Alas indeed. I gasped at the comments coming from our Home Secretary lately
margaret21
You’ve changed my mind about reading this book. I had unfairly assumed it was a bit of a tear-jerking pot-boiler, rather than thoughtful and thought-provoking.
BookerTalk
I hadn’t realised either Margaret just how thoughtful it would be – I’ve had it on the shelves for a few years being reluctant to read it for the same reasons
Claire 'Word by Word'
Wonderful review, I’m glad these stories are shared through fiction, the absence of the personal story from the narrative of world events, only continues to harden hearts and strengthen prejudice.
BookerTalk
Sadly that does seem to be what’s happening. People hear or see inflammatory comments about numbers and believe the line they are being fed
Didi
I thought this book was really quite good. I read it when it came out. I was impressed with how the author keeps the reader plunged in tension and denial of all of what’s going on until later in the book. I also thought the writing was beautiful. I would definitely read another book by this author.
Carol
This is a beautifully written and memorable story!
BookerTalk
I was surprised by how good it was. When I friend gave me a copy I had reservations but they were happily proved wrong
Lisa Hill
This is a wonderful book. I read it in 2020 and if you look at the comments, there is despair about Australia’s policies, and concern that Britain was becoming more hard-hearted too. I don’t think any of us would have predicted just how hard-hearted that might be.
BookerTalk
The inflammatory nature of the recent comments by the British Home Secretary in recent weeks reminded me of that odious man Enoch Powell and his rivers of blood speech
Lisa Hill
I try not to look at it. We get The Guardian here, and they report on British news more than the ABC, so I do see some of it. The world is becoming an awful place…
BookerTalk
All we need now is for that nutter in North Korea to decide it’s time the world paid him more attention
Lisa Hill
In a day of darkness, we had a stunning ray of sunshine here in Australia. Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist, was released from prison in China after three years and we saw footage of our foreign minister Penny Wong embracing her in welcome home. Everyone I know is paralysed with horror by what’s happening in the Middle East but this was a moment to remember that good things do happen.
BookerTalk
Thanks for sharing that good news. I’ll happily celebrate anything at the moment