2021 Book Review #33: Songbirds

 

I discovered this new fiction book based on real life events on our town library's "new books" shelf.

Apparently, this is the author's 2nd novel.  I had never heard of her.  I now want to look for her first book because this one was so well written.

STORY SUMMARY

Nisha lives on the island of Cyprus.  She is far away from her home country, Sri Lanka and her mother and little girl Kumari.  Her husband died in a mining accident while she was pregnant for Kumari.  Nisha is working as a maid and nanny for a wealthy widow named Petra.  Nisha sends money back home for her mother and daughter....it's the only way she can support them. 

 Petra's husband Stephanos died and she has a little girl named Aliki. Petra is an eye doctor and her tenant who lives above her flat is named Yiannis.  

Yiannis is a poacher.  He traps the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate every year from Africa to Europe.  He sells them on the black market. 

Yiannis has a dream:  he wants to find a new way of life and stop working illegally, and he wants to marry Nisha with whom he is in love. 

One night, Nisha makes dinner for Aliki and Petra.  It's a very savory dahl curry.....she cleans up the kitchen and puts Aliki to bed. Then she leaves the house on a mysterious errand.  She vanishes.

When the police refuse to do anything  about this case, Petra takes on the investigation herself.  She follows a path that leads to Nisha's friends...all of whom are domestic workers like herself....and she discovers a darker side to the migrant's life......where impossible choices make them vulnerable, captive, and worse.

Where is Nisha?  

MY THOUGHTS

This novel is realistic fiction based on the true life events of the missing migrant/domestic workers who were refugees on the island of Cyprus.  This happened in 2019.  I remember reading about it in the NYTimes.  You can see an article here.   

I loved that there were just two voices in this book and each chapter was either Petra or Yiannis. There was also a side story going on in italics at the beginning of each chapter.  I don't want to go into much detail about that as I don't want to ruin the story for you.  It does depict the real life happenings to a degree. 

I experienced so many emotions in reading this book.  It's about social/racial justice, the plight of refugees, the misogyny and mistreatment/abuses that occur with many of these refugee women, and it's about how we are so quick to judge people who are different from us.  The author does a great job in making the headlines into a very real, personal human story......and to think that this happened to more than 1 woman is overwhelming.  I felt fear, anger, sadness, shame (because so many Americans are like the Cypriots.....so judgemental about refugees.  I honestly think most people don't know the difference between an immigrant and a refugee.  

This book is about truth and justice! The ending is very poignant.  I love that the author included so many details that match the real cases. (Obviously, the names are different). 

I am appalled that nothing was done to find the missing women......and yet I really wasn't all that surprised.  I'm sure the same type of thing happens here in the States way more than we know about. 

The author herself was brought up in London and the daughter of Cypriot refugees.  

The power and love that bonds a mother and daughter is just beautiful in this book. 

The analogy between the songbirds and the refugee women is just so well done. This novel is just beautiful.

There were a couple of good quotes that jumped out at me:

"You see, when you clump people together and don't understand their personal stories, you can make up any bullshit and convince yourself it's the truth" (pg 179 Songbirds by Christy Lefteri, c.2021)

"Children search our eyes to discover the world. When they see happiness or joy or love there, then they know that these things exist." (pg 283) 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.