This is an interesting book and some of the tales are quite harrowing but it is not an easy read. I found many of the stories quite jumbled and disconnected. I think the problem with this lies in the fact that reality never reads quite as well as fiction. This could have been improved with more formal divisions and chapters rather than an account of an account (the author talking to Abdullah) as I often became confused as to who was being talked about.
I abandoned this book at the 50% mark

A poignant and harrowing telling of the author's conversations with the man who has saved many girls and women from ISIS, and detailing their stories of the genocide of the Yazidi people along with Mikhail's own story of her experiences in her birth country. One of the most difficult books I've read in terms of the subject matter, but Mikhail's storytelling brings to life a narrative that is rarely heard through the media, that of family and community life and the many times that citizens selflessly helped women escape their captors.

This is a tough book-the plight of the Yazidis at the hand of Daesh may have sunk into the obscurities of the US news cycle but remains horrific fact. This is a collection of first-hand recollections of their stories-the women are different and their reactions differ but above all, they are scarred and traumatized from their ordeals with ways of expressing themselves that lingers deep. Shining above it all is the hard work of Abdullah Sharem (a former beekeeper) at trying to recover the women from their slavery. I really think these stories need more attention, they need to be read and incorporated into our lives of privilege. It's hard to believe that human beings are capable of such disregard for each others' humanity but it's also important to believe that people can be recovered, they can escape, and that it's worth helping and supporting them just like it's worth fighting against those who do such things.
However, and I feel like a less-good person complaining here, this was also hard to read due to the presentation/format. Prior to this, I didn't know who Mikhail was so that was a major stumbling block in reading this book. She is everywhere in it yet I didn't know what her place in the story was, why I should particularly think about her emotional reactions. Each of the stories is presented quite awkwardly, a sort of meander about time zones and finally Abdullah could call and here's what she said: and then the story begins. It distracted me, removed me from the narratives awkwardly.

This book tells the true stories of people that have been kidnapped and escaped from Daesh (Islamic state) being rescued by the Beekeeper in the title.
These stories show the worst and best of humanity. I'm also shocked at how little I knew about this especially as it's happening now. This will definitely stay with me and it would be almost impossible for someone not to be horrified and moved by this book.

My only minor point for improvement would be perhaps a map of the routes taken as I'm not familiar with the geography.

A very intense, shocking and moving true story outlining the horrors of life in Iraq for Yazidi women at the hands of Daesh. The horrors and cruelties only underline the bravery of those who risked their lives to help these women and their families. The beekeeper, Abdullah, is one such person who enables the rescue of many of these people with little regard to his own safety. The horror of the cruelty stayed with me long after I had finished the book. Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for an ARC.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an unbiased review.
This book is hard reading, documenting the horrific experiences of females caught in the clutches of ISIS and one man's selfless and tireless work in freeing them from their captures.
A truely wonderful human being whose seeks no credit or fame for his endeavours.

This novel of literary nonfiction is such an important insight in to the bravery and truth of Yasidi women in Iraq at the hands of Daesh (Islamic State).

Part poetry, part biographical it is written beautifully by Dunya, an Iraqi journalist who fled her home and is now a poet and writer living in America, from her own perspective as well as reporting the challenges and tales from the refugee camps relayed in texts and phonecalls by Abdullah Shrem. Abdullah is a Yazidi journalist who saves his cousin Nadia who at 28 was captured near Sinjar by Daesh, separated from her husband, forced to convert to Islam with her children, and then sold to "marry" a Daesh fighter only to escape with Abdullah's help. Abdullah goes on to assist in the escape and rescue of countless Yazidi women and children to refugee camps (themselves so crowded and basic that they are difficult to bear).

The plight of these people, entire communities that are captured because of their religion, is harrowing, it's sadly a story that's a repeat throughout history (the Rwandan genocide for example). The men were immediately killed, elders buried alive, and women and children sold as slaves, to marry abusive supporters of Daesh and young boys brainwashed to fight.

The book is not graphic but presents the reality of these communities and it is heartbreaking. The abuse and horror that they endured and that continues to be perpetuated in this region by IS is difficult to imagine yet equally is repeated over and over through the stories Dunya documents. There is however incredible bravery, compassion and sacrifice shown by different communities within Sinjar and the surrounding areas the Yazidi are moved to in order to assist their escapes and safety, The recollections of happier times within the communities and the region are bittersweet, as war has resurfaced many times throughout their history and leaves many scars.

I was left with many thoughts to consider and a greater understanding of the region, assisted by my previous reading of The Raqqa Diaries by Samer, I felt I was given an account of the truth of the people, not just the portrayal of the bombings and fightings presented on the news but the lives, loves and souls of those individuals who endure a terrible persecution and live in such uncertainty.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher Serpent's Tail for a copy of this book to review honestly, in my own words.

The Beekeeper of Sinjar is the true story of Abdullah Sharem, an Iraqi beekeeper who saved the lives of Yazidi women sold into slavery by the Muslim fundamentalists known as Daesh, or Islamic State.

Sinjar is a town in the Nineveh Province of Iraq, close to Mount Shingal. We in the west were mostly ignorant of the region until stories emerged of al-Qaeda causing several explosions there in 2007, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Yazidis (its endogamous, Kurdish-speaking population, whose religion is Yazidism – a combination of several monotheistic beliefs). Seven years later, Daesh (sometimes known as ISIL or ISIS) seized the township and coldly slaughtered 3,000 elderly and male Yazidis, dumping their bodies in mass graves, then forced the women to become sex slaves. This led to the mass exodus of a people who had inhabited the area for thousands of years.

Dunya Mikhail, a celebrated Iraqi-Assyrian poet and journalist from Baghdad, who was forced to flee her homeland during the rule of Saddam Hussein (she now lives and teaches in the USA), has gathered in her book an extraordinary collection of first-person narratives directly from those who survived these horrendous ordeals, and also from their rescuers.

Mikhail begins by thanking the “women who escaped the clutches of Daesh […] for their willingness to speak about the details of their suffering, despite the fact that deep wounds don’t speak, they can only be felt.” She had been fortunate to befriend Abdullah, the apiarist who had traded in honey until Daesh seized his relatives, after which he devoted his every waking moment to finding them. As a consequence, others turned to him for assistance in seeking their missing family members. Because of his many business relationships and detailed knowledge of the roads, he rapidly developed a wide network of contacts willing to risk their lives helping him. He succeeded in rescuing many women against all odds from their brutal captors.

“I used to have a huge garden in Sinjar where I would tend to the beehives for hours on end,” he tells Mikhail. “The movements of the queen bee […], her superior flying abilities compared to the males amazed me, made me profoundly appreciate all the women in my life.” After comparing humankind with his colony of bees, he goes on to say: “In our society women work and sacrifice for others without getting what they deserve. Women are oppressed even outside the world of Daesh, which has nothing whatsoever to do with rational […] life.”

Abdullah is a profoundly humane and likeable character, and without him Mikhail could not have written this book. He put her directly in touch with many brutalized victims, some of whom spoke to her personally of their remarkable escapes from these violent, frequently drugged fighters with their twisted ideologies.

The Beekeeper of Sinjar isn’t an easy read but it is often moving and inspirational. It is also vital, I feel, that we as readers bear witness to atrocities of this sort in order to prevent them from happening again.

Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi-Assyrian poet who is now based in the United States but was born in Iraq and graduated with a BA from the University of Baghdad some years later. She has worked as a journalist and a translator for "The Baghdad Observer", a prominent Iraqi newspaper before being questioned by Saddam Hussein's government and facing increasing threats and harassment from the Iraqi authorities for her writings. As a result of this, and to be able to carry-on enjoying her chosen profession, she fled Iraq via Jordan, eventually settling in America. Mikhail both speaks and writes in Arabic, Assyrian and English. Most of her previous work is classified as poetry including "The War Works Hard" which won PEN's Trnslation Fund Award, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and was named one of the best books of 2005 by the New York Public Library. In 2001, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing.

Wow, and I really mean wow! This is a powerful book. Although the topic is upsetting and opens your eyes up to the cruelty in our world, it was a story that needed to be told and I am so appreciative that Mikhail was the one who chose to do this. Her writing is exquisite. Maybe the most exquisite I have ever come across. If you can read this and keep from becoming an emotional wreck, you are very skilled (or maybe just cold). We are all familiar with the ghastly images and stories of the horrendous things going on in wartorn Syria and most of us probably believe that pictures get the message across better than any other method of communication. That is not the case here, this book not only completely overpowers the television accounts but tells the stories of these women, men, and children in a compassionate and detailed way.

The plight of the Yazidi people makes for uncomfortable but neccessary reading. I feel everyone should be acquiring a copy as the message of hope rather than hopelessness is such an important one. Even if the odds seemed stacked against them these people had hope that endured many lifetimes of heartache and pain. Abdullah, The eponymous beekeeper, used his knowledge of the local terrain in order to smuggle Yazidi women to safety, keeping hope alive for those still missing as well as their relatives. This book goes some way to highlighting what they went through but I don't believe we could truly know or even begin to understand the true unimaginable horror of their experiences.

I am positive that this was as difficult to write as it was for us to read, especially with the authors proximity to the people and the location. As I have made an effort to delve deeper into poetry in the past few years, now that I know the beauty with which Mikhail writes I will be swiftly purchasing and reading "The War Works Hard" as an opening into her wider work and will go from there.

Many thanks to Serpent's Tail for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

In The Beekeeper of Sinjar, the well known journalist Dunya Mikhail tells the tragic stories of women from across Iraq who have managed to escape the clutches of ISIS. Since 2014, ISIS has been persecuting the Yazidi people, killing or selling those who won't convert to Islam. These women have lost their entire families and loved ones, Dunya Mikhail brings together the women's tales of almost impossible escape with the story of her own exile.
The Beekeeper. was a trader selling his mountain honey across the region, but when ISIS came to Sinjar he decided to use his local knowledge to help these poor women to escape the brutality they had suffered at the hands of ISIS, and bring them to safety through the the mountains and lands - he employed men he could trust to act as smugglers and in this way, the women could escape and resume some sort of normality.
This book is harrowing, tragic and people around the world should read it to begin to understand what ISIS is and how they indoctrinate young boys and teenagers into being brutal, selfish and ruthless and tearing apart families under their regime.

I need not just one tissue but a whole box........If you don't read a single book this year or ever.
I Strongly recommend you read this one! It will make you think how lucky we are.

I found The Beekeeper of Sinjar by Dunya Mikhail heart wrenching and a very strong book that will have you saying OMG and reaching out for some tissues. This book is a compilation of harrowing stories about different attempts to rescue of the Yazidi women, who were captured by ISIS. These women have lost their families, close friends and love ones and in a different country. They've been sexually abused, tortured, sold into sex slavery like common cattle, woman and small children are forced to manufacture chemical weapons, then forced into marriage. Their men and the elderly are forced into pits then massacred.
Their tales are unfolded within this brilliant written book. Dunya Mikhail also writes about the beekeeper, who uses his knowledge of the local terrain and the large network of transporters, helpers and former smugglers who help bring the women back to safety.

This book is just Beautifully written that will make you stop reading and think..........A must Read.

A Very Big Thank you to Netgalley, Serpent's Tail / Profile Books and Dunya Mikhail for sharing this True Story.

Big Fat 5 Star read. If I could give it 100 Stars I would. My heart goes out to these women and I hope they peace. x

This is a hard-hitting cross between journalism and memoir, telling the stories of Yazidi women, captured by ISIS, raped, sold, enslaved, having seen their husbands, sons and fathers killed or converted to ISIS, who manage to escape through a network of people smugglers spread across the troubled region. The stories are harrowing, as they should be, offset by the humanity of Abdullah, the eponymous beekeeper. The chorus of voices weaves together a testament of suffering, courage and endurance.