Songbirds by Christy Lefteri

Synopsis
She walks unseen through our world.
Cares for our children, cleans our homes.
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.

Review
Last year I listened to the audiobook of Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo, narrated by the amazing Art Malik, and fell in love with Christy Lefter’s writing, so I jumped at the chance to read her new book. Songbirds, like her previous novel, looks at migrants, but in a different way. Nisha came to Cyprus from Sri Lanka to work as a maid in order to support her mother and daughter after the death of her husband in Sri Lanka. Petra is Nisha’s employer, she hires Nisha to look after the house and her own daughter Aliki, who she raises from birth. Yannis is Nisha’s lover, he dreams of marrying her and helping her family in Sri Lanka. But one night Nisha just disappears, leaving all she loves behind, but no one cares about a missing migrant worker, so Petra and Yannis start their own investigation which opens their eyes to the. plight of these domestic workers. Inspired by events is Cyprus this is an intriguing and emotional read.

The first thing that comes to mind in reading and reviewing this book is just how beautiful Christy Lefteri’s writing is. She has a style that is poetic, detailed, enthralling and detailed. I was almost hypnotised by her writing, she manages to paint a picture in full technicolour with her words both in the physical landscape of the book and also in her characters. When I think about Cyprus, I think of the sun, the beaches and it’s classical history. Christy Lefteri shows another side, the forests, the poaching of beautiful songbirds for sale on the black market, and the systematic use of migrant workers, many of whom are mistreated.

Nisha’s story is one that represents the plight of many migrant workers around the world. Widowed and with little income she joins an agency to get work in Cyprus to help her mother and young daughter, who is two years older that Aliki. Nisha is more of a mother to Aliki than Petra, looking after from birth, taking her to and from school, doing homework with her and putting her to bed, all things she could be doing with her own daughter if circumstances were different. It is through Nisha’s story that the shocking reality of the lives of migrant workers are revealed. These women work long hours six or seven days a week with no holidays. Many are mentally, physically and sexually abused but the police do nothing as they are not bothered about the plight of these women. At first glance Petra and Nisha seem worlds apart. Petra has a good job, a stable life and a good income, but there are many similarities in their situation. Both women are widowed, Petra just before Aliki’s birth, both come from war torn and colonised countries, and both are distanced from their daughters: Nisha geographically and Petra emotionally. Petra and Yannis, Nisha’s lover realise hey have to find out where she has gone as the police aren’t interested. During the investigation they both learn a lot about Nisha, who she really was and Petra realises how little she knows about this woman who has lived with her for nine years. Yannis, Nisha’s lover is a complex character and one I didn’t like much at first, due to his illegal poaching of songbirds. However, he did redeem himself as the plot progresses as I understood that he was caught up in an agreement he couldn’t get out off. I thought the metaphor of the songbirds, trapped and unable to escape, was a brilliant and emotional mirror to the plight of the female migrants. Christy Lefteri draws you in to the life of these characters, her indepth portrayal exposes the flaws of these characters, the mistakes of the past and their determination in their investigation.

Songbirds is a beautiful and haunting read that I will remember for a long time. Christy Lefteri’s writing is simply stunning, the prose is lyrical and this has to be one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. Like in her previous book The Beekeeper of Aleppo, the important subject of immigration is at the books centre, and Christy Lefteri shines a light on the reality of the migrants, the terrible working conditions that break their human rights, they are invisible and no one cares about them and they can’t even have relationships whilst working. This book is a stunning, sublime and in parts shocking, and can’t recommend it highly enough.

I would like to thank Bonnier Books and Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for the invite to be part of this blog tour.