Zaffré The Beekeeper of Aleppo: The must-read million copy bestseller

As a Syrian I definitely shed alot of tears reading this.. it's a masterpiece. It's heartbreaking too, but that's because it's just so truthful to what our war is really like. I absolutely adore the accuracy of our culture that the writer adapted, i didn't feel it written by a foreigner but rather by someone who really understands our culture. Absolutely recommended.

The book was nicely written; a quick and easy read. The author paints a picture of the experiences of refugees and the hardships they face when trying to get to a safer country; her experiences as a UN volunteer make reading this all the more real and eye-opening. The moving story of the characters in this book highlights the importance of understanding the alternative view and not one that is usually portrayed in the media of refugees being a 'burden' on countries they flee to.I will look forward to more from the author as I found that her choice of clear and simple language allowed the book to flow well and despite the subject and content of the book, made it all the more entertaining to read.Would definitely recommend.

Beautifully written. Very moving. Highly recommended.

Do the broken lives of war refugees move you?“Sometimes we create such powerful illusions so that we do not get lost in the darkness”☕️What a breathtaking read! I have to admit parts of this book broke my heart and I have never cried so much reading a book before😔We see war refugees all over the news and everyone has an opinion on the subject of immigration but seldom do we understand the traumatic journey the people make.THE STORY - Nuri, a 🐝beekeeper and his wife, Afra, an artist 🎨 are living their perfect dream in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo. Then, the war breaks, leaving them exposed and vulnerable to a broken world, to a horrifying loss and to the tragic journey from Syria through Turkey and Greece to UK.MY RATING - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/21/2 ⭐️ is withheld because it took me time and complete focus to get invested in the story. I love how #christylefteri (author) have bridged the 3️⃣ timelines : Pre-war Happy Life in Syria, Horrifying past days of the war in Syria and Present unbroken sky in England through flashbacks and Nuri’s nightmares and dreams both in past and present by connecting the chapters by ONE ☝️ word. The last word of each chapter becomes the title and beginning of the next one.Although the read is compelling, it disappointed me a little in the end. Certain answers are left open - did Nuri Afra reach their destination and claim asylum? What about Afra’s eyesight? Did Nuri seek help for PTSD? I wish I could find closure for these.Have a good read !

This book is a tribute to all who are forced to leave their homes under duress. It is a moving story put together from the lived experience of those who are exploited by people traffickers and, left forgotten in camps and unwelcome in countries they travel through. The hope they cling to is kept alive by their own strength but also by the occasional kindness of strangers. It has given me a deeper empathy which I could not have reached through news reports.

Great read

著者は、1974年のキプロス紛争の際に英国に渡って来た「キプロス難民」の両親から、1980年に英国で生を受けている。本書はフィクションであるが、アテネの難民センターにおける著者の実際のボランティア体験に根ざしている。難民たちの語る数々の逸話を、著者の中で醸成･再構成して編んだストーリーが本書。シリアのアレッポで養蜂を営む男性が主人公で、シリア内戦による治安の悪化･生命の危機から妻と共にシリアを脱出、トルコ、ギリシャを経て、親戚の待つ英国を目指す行程が、物語全体の枠組。仮の居場所となる幾つかの難民施設等における、シリアのみならず、サハラ以南のアフリカやアフガニスタン等からの難民や施設関係者達を交えた会話シーンが多いが、(難民同士がアラビア語やペルシャ語で語っている前提のシーンもあるものの)主に母語でない英語で会話が交わされるシーンが多く、simpleな(かつしばしばbrokenな)英語会話表現が多用されながら物語が進んでいく。そこでは難民達の筆舌に尽くしがたい体験・苦悩や、関係する人達(施設関係者や密航業者等)の善意や悪意が赤裸々に描かれている。主人公が進む行程の多くは、トルコ及びギリシャの地であるが、ここでふと頭をよぎったことがある。著者の両親は、1974年のキプロス紛争(ギリシャへの統合を主張する多数派のギリシャ系住民と、それに反対して分割統治を望むトルコ系住民との対立の顕在化･激化。その後、南部のいわゆるキプロス共和国と、トルコのみが承認する北キプロス・トルコ共和国とに、実質的に分断)を契機に、英国に移って来た経緯にあり、著者もその経緯については両親から聞かされてきたものと容易に想像される。本書においては、何からのethnicity/nationality/religion等に対する偏った観方は見られない。著書は著者の手から離れた瞬間より、それ自体が(著者とは別の)生きた物として捉えられるべきとは理解するものの、難民である両親の体験談が、本書を書き上げるに際して、どのような影響があったのか/なかったのか、という点に関心が向かってしまう。あるいは、その両親の体験談そのものが、著者をアテネの難民センターに向かわせたのではないか、等と思ってしまう。読者宛の後書きで、「見る」ということは何を意味するかを自ら問うてきた、と著者も述べているが、視覚障碍者が視覚健常者に対して「何を見ているのか、あるいは、実は見えていないのか」を気付かせてくれる、という文脈において、レイモンド・カーヴァーの『大聖堂』が思い起こされた。新潮クレスト・ブックスあたりから、早く本書の邦訳が出されることを望むと同時に、例えば、Fuocoammare(邦題「海は燃えている～イタリア最南端の小さな島～」)のような、難民達の苦悩の実態に迫る作品として映画化にも期待したい。

一つの章が２つの場所と時間で構成され、二つ目は夫婦が目指したＵＫ。章の終わりの言葉とピリオドがなく、次の章の題に繋がり、二人の旅の広がりと時間を感じます。シリアの砂漠、川などが目に浮かび、世界の空は繋がっていて、蜂はどこにでも生息していて、生きていく術はあるのだと。希望を失わない、愛することは失われないと強く感じました。

No, his dark thoughts came from somewhere else, as if he had already become afraid of losing everything, as if some echo from the future was reaching back and whispering in his ear.There is something attractive about tragedy, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, no, I am not a sadist. I am far from it. I regard the suffering of living beings as the most dreadful thing that could ever happen. But I don’t deny that there is a quality in tragic things that attracts living beings towards themselves.The Syrian civil war has now been raging for almost 8 years. Numerous dead and uncountable displaced, yet the world is watching with fascination.“You know, if we love something it will be taken away.”The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri is the first book that I have read that has the Syrian civil war as its backdrop. It is the tale of Nuri and Afra and so many more like them, fleeing their country and taking paths unknown, towards something they don’t know. In the journey that could lead them to their end, or to light, Nuri and Afra must battle not only with the devils that lurk behind shadows but also their own demons that threaten to tear them apart.I am glad that she’s blind. I know what that sounds like! If I could give her a key that opened a door into another world, then I would wish for her to see again.Lost in the stone grey abyss of his wife's blindness, Nuri narrates his story. He and Afra are staying at B&B in the South of England, waiting for their caseworker to lead them to the interview where their future will be decided. You see, they are seeking asylum in the dreamy and safe UK from their country Syria, which has been ravaged by war. It isn’t as easy as it looks. Humans are the worst of the animals, capable of inflicting the deadliest harm on their fellow species and not bat an eyelid. But for those who have been damaged beyond repair, does anything matter anymore?I wish I knew who my enemy was.In 2015, when Nuri and Afra started their journey from their home in Aleppo, they didn't know what the future held for them, yet they walked and walked into the unknown. Everything that they loved and owned was destroyed by the war, they didn't have a choice but to leave the country of their birth and right, and go to their cousin Mustafa and his family who have already made it there. At least Nuri knew this and he pushed a reluctant Afra to leave every day until something happened that jolted her back to the horrors of their reality. They met thousands of other lost souls like themselves on their mammoth journey on the refugee trail through Europe. Facing prejudice and hatred, from Aleppo to Istanbul to Greece and finally, England, crossing over treacherous land and stormy water for what seemed like ages, Nuri and Afra lose much more than their physical self and money, they lose their soul in trying to find their future.Sometimes I think if I keep walking, I will find some light, but I know that I can walk to the other side of the world and there will still be darkness. It’s not like the darkness of the night, which also has white light from the stars, from the moon. This darkness is inside me...Let me start by saying that I am fascinated by war stories and stories that speak of the cruelty of humans towards humans. I am fascinated to read about the lengths they will go to, to achieve their agenda, to inflict misery, and to just satiate their sadistic selves. It appalls me, but above anything else, it makes me thankful for what I have, and in reality, makes my problems shrink and my life much easier to live.This is what I wanted: to be with Afra in a world that was still unbroken.Written in deceptively simple language, the story flows. And with it, the reader. It barely took me two days with a toddler hanging on my legs to finish this one. It is one of those books that doesn’t let you keep it down until you have read the end, but then the end is not actually the end. It is just the beginning of your own tears and a resounding WHY!?Ms. Christy is a talented author. As she seamlessly blends the past with the present, she doesn’t let her writing become overbearing. It is just enough to let the reader grasp the full essence without making them cringe at the exaggeration of the fictional plot. The emotions are left raw, untouched by the author’s pen. A tree is called a tree and not a canopy of flickering green in the sun. Subtly and effectively the author lets the reader into the lives of the refugees.There is always one person in the group who has more courage than the rest. It takes bravery to cry out, to release what is in your heart.As much as Christy’s writing impressed me, I am more in awe of her art of storytelling. This book isn’t necessarily about the war, there is hardly any politics and just about some events of violence, but the whole book reeks of violence that is happening around the people. The writing isn’t dark or depressing, yet it is the only thing that you would feel while reading it. Nuri and Afra travel together but live in their own troubled worlds. The trauma that has befallen them hasn’t distanced them physically but they aren’t what they used to be. The bleak present and hopeless past are interspersed by the time before the war when life was good and the bees hummed and the children played and when one could walk with their head held high and sleep peacefully under their roof. More than anything, the story is about hope and human desperation for want of a good life, at least a bearable life....and then it saddened me when I realized that Sami has been born in a world where everything could break.The more I write, the more I will lessen the impact this book has had on me. So let me just end here by mentioning one last thing. Something from this book reminds me of that photo once printed on the front page of newspapers around the world. A face-down toddler on the beach, drowned and dead. His only fault was that he was born in a war-torn country and wanted to escape for a better future. I look at my daughter, same age as him when he breathed his last, and say a prayer of thank you to the Almighty for having blessed us with a life that doesn’t end like that. Be thankful for what you have, many in the world would go out on a limb and kill for half of that.Despite the broken world that we all live in, there is hope that tomorrow would be better and our children will see better days than today.Where there are bees, there are flowers and where there are flowers there is new life and hope.

The story is about two migrants from war-torn Syria and their journey to England as refugees.Beautifully narrated by an author, herself a child of refugees.How a peaceful and happy home and surroundings get devastated through strife and bloodshed and the travails and tribulations of refugees trying to escape such misfortune has been depicted with a lot of pathos.The journey of Nuri and Afra is worth reading and understanding the problems of refugees.

The title is amazing. A page turner.On delivery part I trust flipkart more when it comes to books. Amazon packaging is such that it always spoils the book somehow.