The Beekeeper of Aleppo is the type of book that will stay with you forever. I understand that my statement is bold, but this book deserves it. It’s daunting and beautiful. I fell in love with the characters and their pain was mine. Their suffering was mine. Their story was too. What Christi Lefteri has done – is write a story that will beat the passage of time. Where other books would fade in my memory, the Beekeeper of Aleppo will remain fresh.
I cried with Nuri, a beekeeper from Aleppo and his wife Afra when they lost their bees, their home, their only son in the Syrian war. I traveled with them to Turkey then Greece and I lived in the refugee camps with them. Then, they arrived in England, seeking asylum like the thousands of others before them and after them.
The aftermath of the horror they survived affected them each differently and their love for each other. Afra was so lost in herself seeing her young son die in her arms, she became blind, without a physical alignment. Nuri suffered severe PTSD from the shock and fear of the war.
But like their beloved bees seeking to build new hives, they eventually allow themselves to accept this new and strange life.
The book is magnificent. Haunting, but some stories simply must be told and I’m grateful that Lefteri gave voices to Nuri and Afra. It’s storytelling at its finest and a sincere reminder why I love books so dearly.
