Dunya Mikhail, an Iraqi-American poet and journalist, puts both talents to good use inThe Beekeeper. She tells the stories of many women who were kidnapped by the Daesh, also known as ISIS. Daesh forces would enter a village, kill the people they deemed useless to them, and force the women into sex slavery in the name of Islam.
Many of these stories come to Mikhail through Abdullah, a beekeeper who works tirelessly to rescue women from captivity through an extensive network of people. The women’s stories are devastating—husbands and fathers executed, women sold, and young boys sent for “reeducation.” Abdullah and his friends do everything they can to reunite women with their relatives. He’s even been involved in rescues of his own extended family.
Mikhail has a journalist’s willingness to push for the story, but she also uses the language of poetry to conjure both the devastation and the beauty of her home culture. While writing the book she returned to Iraq for the first time in 20 years to see for herself what was happening and speak face-to-face with some of the victims of the terror.
The Beekeeper is a heartbreaking and important book. (New Directions)

This book is a devastating but vital read, especially in this age where someone practicing a different religion is vilified or dehumanized just because their beliefs are different and where those seeking asylum are considered "animals" by some of the world's most powerful politicians. Mikhail is also to be commended for the sensitive and deft way she presented these stories; she gives the victims space to tell their tales and does not overshadow their experiences.

I couldn't put this book down. It tells the true story of rescuing girls who have been stolen by Dashesh and sold as sex slaves. It tells us how they are returned to their families and the horrors they endure. It is both tragic and inspires hope.

I would like to thank the netgalley, and the author and publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

The women of Northern Iraq have been murdered and brutalized by Daesh (ISIS), supposedly in the name of religion. This book of TRUTH that reads like FICTION may disturb your views on religion

There IS a beekeeper, a man who has risked everything to free these women and children. He is not the only one but he is the torch bearer for hope. This is a GOOD book but it is disturbing with its truth

I know Dunya Mikhail's work from her poetry collection, 'The War Works Hard.'. And while I follow the news of Daesh as much as the average person, this book was my first close reading of what has been going on there. What struck me at once was the unsentimental but personal prose style with which Mikhail unfolds the stories of the many women and those who try to help them. There is horror, tragedy, pain, sorrow, and anger in these pages. And, through all the destruction and violence described, it is hard to understand how these women were able to hang on to any hope, knowing how, even if they managed to escape, either their own people might not take them back or they may never even find their immediate families again.

In all the cacophony of the 24/7 news cycles of Trumpistan, we are losing visibility of one of the worst present-day crises, which is only getting worse. What will it take? Brave people like the beekeeper and truth-tellers like Mikhail. But that is, in the end, still not enough.

[Rest of the review to be linked when it is published.]

This is a powerful story of the kidnapping and torture of Yazidi women in Iraq by the terrorist organization Isis or Daesh. It is mostly told through the words of women and men who survived their abduction and were rescued by outsiders. It was a difficult read at times due to its harsh and devastating subject matter.

The Beekeepr is a compilation of stories that individually are horrific and heartbreaking to read. A culture of people torn asunder by barbarians. Women sold into sex slavery like common cattle, children tossed aside, and men forced into pits then massacred. Impossible to comprehend it still goes o, it sadly this story documents the narratives of just a few who were saved.

The fact that I read this book in less than six hours demonstrates just how gripping it was, but it was not an easy read. A lot of tears were shed and I often read with my mouth agape. I don't think there is anyway to prepare to read the real-life traumas of a group of people who you can identify with in many ways. I will never understand the spirit in which people can rape, murder, bury alive and virtually rip apart families in the name of any God or religion. And in the end, you realize that if the global community cannot come together to stop these kinds of atrocities then are any of us really, truly ever safe?

Mikhail allowed these women and Abdalla to tell their stories uncensored, raw and with alarming honest. She didn't insert herself selfishly into their narratives and provided a safe space for them to share. And as painful and uncomfortable as it was for me to read it, imagine just how much more painful it was for them. Everyone with an ounce of compassion needs to read this. There is no way anyone can read this and remain unchanged.