'The Beekeeper of Aleppo' by Christine Lefteri

‘The beekeeper of Aleppo’ by Christine Lefteri

There’s magic in audio books. A story comes to life in a well read recording. A ‘wrong’ voice or accent can result in me dismissing a book, or returning to the printed version. I could not listen to ‘where the crowdads sing’ by Delia Owens, yet I loved the book when I read it. I returned Trent Dalton’s audio book ‘Simmering skies’ that I had foolishly bought without the imperative listening to the sample – the narrator just did not work for me.

How different the experience of listening to ‘The beekeeper of Aleppo’.  Easy to listen too, a kind soothing voice that made the truly awful events in this book bearable.

The story of  Nurie, the beekeeper of Aleppo, and his family – wife Afra, son Sammie, cousin Mustafa and his family.  It’s a story of love that shimmers through detailed descriptions. Of a laugh. A landmark. A family dinner. The bees the honey the hives. A finger guiding the hand to fasten the hijab.  The magic of community.  The love between people who happen to wash up in the same unwelcoming places – the Moroccan man, the boy Mohammed, Angelica – there are several recurring characters coming to life.

The story is not told sequentially. Chapters jump from life in England to life before the war to various stages of the journey.

It’s a harrowing story. Idyllic description of the day-to-day life and activities before the Syrian war, and details of the slow changes – from fear to truly awful events, from planning to actually fleeing the country.  The story is entirely focussed on its central characters, and how they experience their world and each other.

The civil war in Syria has been in the headlines for a long time, as has the plight of Syrian refugees. 15% of Syria’s pre-war population has fled the war torn country, many civilians have died. The books focus on its small cast of characters allows the reader an insight into the grief, the pain, the loss of control, the fear that is pervasive for so long, a constant companion on the long perilous journey.

The book describes the life, loves,  grief and losses of ‘normal’ people; it veers from atrocities committed to the beauty of the wingless bee that survives on a tiny garden created in a courtyard just for her.

A gripping story, highly recommended.