Nuri the beekeeper finds himself forced to leave Aleppo, Syria with his wife Afra, an artist. He and his wife make the harrowing journey through Turkey and Greece. Their final destination is Britain where his cousin Mustafa waits with new beehives and the opportunity to teach beekeeping to refugees. The journey includes peril, though, including danger, homelessness, PTSD, and rape.
The story moves between three timelines - the present, the couple's refuge journey, and Nuri's young adult years. In places, the changing timeline can be confusing, but the author uses the same word to connect sections, which is a poetic technique.
In "The Beekeeper of Aleppo," author Christi Lefteri writes a beautiful yet heartbreaking story. What makes it even more powerful is that it could be true. In fact, the author drew on firsthand experiences and testimonies as she wrote this book.
I highly recommend this book. It tells a story about the perils Syrian refugees face, and this story needs to be heard.

A beautiful prose of the vulnerability of the human spirit, the love between a broken man and his blind wife, and the hope of raising bees in a new home. Nuri and his wife Afra must leave everything they know in Syria. As their country is ravaged by war, Nuri must convince his blind wife they have no future and no hope in Syria. That they must escape to England in hopes to meet with Nuri's cousin and start again their beekeeping business.

This novel is driven by the art of beekeeping as it weaves the lessons learned by the will to go on. Another driving force is the blindness of Afra. Afra does not want to leave Syria as she is grieving heavily of the loss of her son. The bomb that killed her son also caused her blindness. As Nuri always as cared for his bees with compassion, respect and diligence, he now carries that to his wife. He is gentle but he questions what love is. You sense the overwhelming emotions of all that his family has gone thru and the fight to keep going. How do you survive the darkness that overcomes.

Their journey to refugee camps and the others they meet, you see a shift of resolve, vulnerability, and who is in the darkness. As their journey becomes more overwhelming, Nuri seeps into darkness while his blind wife seems to see the light of reality.

The narration is done well. Spoken with Nuri's voice as each chapter has a transition by a single word that separates the past and the present. It is done quite well and very lovely.

I was quite taken with the beauty of vulnerability. Highly recommend.

A Special Thank you to Random House Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

For years, the world has watched as stories of refugees arriving in foreign lands --- dead or alive --- are ridiculed, threatened and prematurely denied asylum and sent back to their war-torn homes. As gritty as the news can be, however, it is often too easy to distance oneself from the reality of the horrors of the refugee crisis. This is where fiction, particularly works like THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO, comes in, to remind us of our capacity for love, empathy and hope.

From the very first page, Christy Lefteri’s book is gripping and poignant. It is told from the point of view of Nuri, a Syrian refugee and former beekeeper. Though he and his wife, Afra, have arrived in the United Kingdom, they have lost nearly everything in the journey --- including Afra’s sight. Blind and in pain, Afra relies on her husband for everything, even as they sit waiting for approval to see a doctor and be granted asylum. In chapters alternating between their life in a boarding house and their journey as refugees to get there, Lefteri presents readers with a powerful and unflinching look at the refugee crisis and reminds us that we cannot look away any longer.

Nuri is clearly a strong, determined man with plenty of good character, but as he chronicles his family’s journey from war-torn Syria through Turkey, Greece and finally the UK, he exposes a darker side, one that has suffered unimaginable and traumatic losses. Nuri and Afra were happy once, with Nuri working as a highly successful beekeeper with his cousin, Mustafa, and Afra painting and looking after their young son, Sami. Though Nuri and his cousin were peaceful men, the war soon came for them, taking Mustafa’s son from him and forcing him and his remaining family to flee. Like too many, Nuri and Afra waited too long and were forced to escape in the dark of night, leaving their home, Afra’s vision and the body of their only son behind. This loss reverberates through the book, not only in quiet moments of grief but in heated moments of resentment and tension between Nuri and Afra that follow them far past the deserts of Syria.

From this point, Lefteri whisks readers through heart-pounding escapes through checkpoints, hazardous journeys in rubber boats, and, perhaps most terrifying of all, camps laden with traumatized --- and sometimes dangerous --- strangers. Lefteri never shies away from an honest description, from dead bodies to snipers and even rape, but she makes it clear that this is only one story, and the world is full of others that are possibly even more horrifying. Regardless of how closely you have followed the refugee crisis, I am sure that all readers will take something new away from this book --- I, for one, did not realize just how many stops and starts there are on the road to safety. Nuri and his wife bargain and haggle with numerous men, none of whom seem to care about the people they are helping, but rather what they can take from those who already have nothing. Throughout it all, Nuri and Afra (like so many before them) must struggle to remain hopeful, even as they can barely look at or touch one another, and are dealing with the psychological effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

As Nuri recalls his journey to the boarding house where he and Afra await their asylum interview, he begins to befriend the other refugees staying with them --- from an elderly Moroccan man obsessed with British idioms, to Diomande, a Somalian refugee whose denial of the horrors he faced threatens to send him right back into the war zone. Lefteri delves deep into the idiosyncrasies and shortcomings of the systems meant to help these displaced people: in one particularly frustrating scene, Nuri, having waited months for the proper paperwork to see a doctor, is turned away because his social worker neglected to put his address on the form. Equally disturbing is the asylum interview process, in which Nuri is asked seemingly pointless questions punctuated by voyeuristic and cruel ones with little regard for how he will feel after replying --- or if there ever can be a right answer to a question like “Can you say something special about your deceased son?”

Perhaps most gripping of all is Nuri’s personal battle with his mind, which seems to have turned on him, tricking him into seeing things that aren’t there and speaking to ghosts. As he comes to terms with his situation, he begins to wonder if he has lost all hope and that is why he is struggling. Though readers will have met him only at the worst time of his life, they will come to love Nuri and root for him and Afra to rekindle their love and turn to one another for safety and redemption. Their love story is the heart of the book, and Lefteri writes it as deftly and gorgeously as she pens even the most devastating war scene.

Alternating between the two most traumatic timelines of Nuri’s life, Lefteri centers on the theme of blindness --- not only Afra’s, but Nuri’s own inability to see his emotional distress and, of course, the world’s willingness to turn a blind eye to everything people like Nuri and Afra have endured. The author is uniquely qualified to write this book, having worked as a UNICEF volunteer at a refugee center in Athens, Greece, and she herself is the daughter of Cypriot refugees. Still, she writes with the compassion and horror of a person who is seeing the crisis for the first time, and it adds a whole new level of urgency and terror to her beautifully written book. Even when she is describing the absolute worst sides of humanity, Lefteri writes lyrically and poetically, using every word to its fullest extent without wasting a moment of her readers' time.

Haunting, illuminating and exploding with awareness, THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO represents the greatest gift of fiction: to inspire empathy in all readers.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a beautifully written novel full of loss, heartbreak, survival, and hope. The journey of Syrian refugees through unknown, foreign, and often extremely dangerous landscapes in search of asylum in Great Britain. The author’s skillful way with a written word and the emotionally charged atmosphere of this book left me heartbroken and emotionally exhausted.

This book is a must read for everyone as it realistically portrays today’s world struggles of people who are forced to flee their homeland in order to survive and save their loved ones from a senseless death at the hands of greatest evil on the earth - power hungry, hateful, and egoistical humans who are willing to destroy everything and everyone in their path to get what they want.

Thank you NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and the author, Christy Lefteri, for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Christy Leftteri's Beekeeper of Aleppo is a stunning Tale on the Level of the Kite Runner. It stirred me to my core. This novel is beautifully crafted and puts a human face on the war in Syria. Oh, how timely it is given the current situation in the news. It follows the lives of Nuri, a beekeeper, and Afra, his artist wife and their twisted and often terrifying journey as they flee their beloved homeland in Syria due to the war to meet up with Nuri's cousin, Mustafa in the English countryside. It is a must-read for the lovers of A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner. It will stir something in your soul that will remain with you long after you are done.

“People are not like bees. We do not work together, we have no real sense of a greater good--I’ve come to realize this now.” - Mustafa, p. 85

Nuri, a beekeeper, and Afra, an artist, live a peaceful life in Aleppo with their son Sami. Then protests and war come to Aleppo. Nuri's cousin Mustafa, who encouraged Nuri to start beekeeping, flees to England to be with his daughter and wife, but Nuri and Afra do not want to leave their beloved Aleppo. When tragedy strikes the family and Afra becomes blind, they decide to make the difficult journey from Syria to England. Along the way we encounter, Mohammed, a young boy who keeps Nuri hopeful and determined to get to England.

While this is a fictional novel, it is incredibly powerful, and I imagine fairly accurate. Christy Lefteri, who is the child of refugees and has worked with refugees through volunteering with UNICEF, effortlessly blended Nuri and Afra's journey as refugees with their life in Aleppo through flashbacks and unique transitions between chapters. At times it is haunting and difficult to read, but it provides us with an understanding of the difficulty refugees face when fleeing their country. However, it is also hopeful at times, as we see that sometimes Mustafa is wrong. People can be like bees. They can help each other and see a greater good in the world.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley via the publisher and from a Goodreads Giveaway.

This story was a journey- an emotional one that takes the reader deep into a world that you may not know much about and from the perspective of Nuri, a beekeeper in Aleppo, Syria. This story of loss, love is beautiful and relevant and a must read!

This is a beautifully written story of a family, who had lived a wonderful life in Syria before the war tore everything apart, from structures to lives, to families, to hopes and dreams.
We follow a couple Nuri who was a beekeeper in Aleppo and his wife Afra, who is a talented artist, who had loved this beautiful city until it was taken from them along with everything they cared about. Afra lost her sight from what she had seen and they finally decide it is time to leave and try to get to England, where Mustafa, Nuri's cousin and business partner had already gone.
This story shows us the hardships not only of the difficult travel to reach a safer place, but also the mental strain from the haunting memories of what they had left behind. Waiting in the refugee camps, hoping to find a way to travel closer to their destination and the things and people they met on there journey were often very hard and sad to witness.
The author who worked in some of those camps in Greece, was able to give us a real view of what is was like to be a refugee, as she used some of the stories she had heard to compose her story.
I will have to check out more books by this author.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for the ARC of this book.

What a hauntingly beautiful story that is written so well. This is a story that will stay with me for some time. I admit that I do not know enough about the situation in Syrian. At times, I wished the story gave more information about the situation.

The author was clever in ending some chapters with a word that started the next chapter. I do wish that the chapters had been labeled. The story was told in alternating time periods and places. So at times I was confused where and when the chapters were.

4.5 stars

Obviously a book about Syrian refugees is going to be a depressing read but it was so predictable and so much foreshadowing it really got bogged down. I felt like I already knew every part of this book before I read it. And he was more the Beekeeper of Aleppo's assistant, which is somehow more depressing.

This book is hard to review due to the fact that I was pulled into caring about the characters but the tone left me feeling very depressed. Nuri and his wife Afra are refugees of Syria on trying to get to Europe. They've lost their son to a bomb and both have PTSD. Nuri's memories of the bees were some of my favorite parts and provided glimpses of what was once beautiful and heartfelt for him which was a welcome respite from all the sadness and heartbreak. The author's writing is thoughtful and insightful. In the end, while this was a haunting story I'm glad I read it

I have to say that I have been shocked at all of the 4 and 5 star ratings for this book. In fact, because of the hype it was receiving, I intentionally requested an ARC from NetGalley. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I felt like this was such a disjointed read and the story did not flow easily.

I appreciate the fact that I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I hate it when I am disappointed in a book for which I high hopes. Oh well.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book took me awhile to get through! I got confused often with what was going on with the plot between past and present and wish it had been written a little differently.

There were some beautiful parts and I learned about the experiences of Syrians during this war time.

Good read. I enjoyed the history and the science lesson about bees. I have gained a new appreciation!

Told in first person, the clues to the events in this story of war and survival, are tucked into memories which results in subtle plot development. Human tragedy and desperation by the refugees are well incorporated into the plot points, but for me the symbolism is the most striking aspect. The destruction of the beehives in the countryside outside of Aleppo compares with the destruction of the Nuri and Afra's family, home, town, and county. Nuri's interest in healing the single broken bee which appears on the small patio in England compares with Mustafa sending emotional lifelines and encouragement to Nuri and Afra. As the expert in beekeeping when he lived in Aleppo, Mustafa arrived in England as a refugee, and had begun to establish beehive colonies in his new country. Information about the bees was tucked with in the chapters, and served to relieve tension in the plot. This is an emotional story which I highly recommend for its portrayal of contemporary, global crisis.

I received a free electronic ARC copy of this novel on August 28, 2019, from Netgalley, Christy Lefteri, and Random House - Ballentine Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this book of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest personal opinion of this work. I am very pleased to recommend this novel to friends and family. This is a book to read and savor, more than once. There are passages from this novel that keep drumming in my heart as I picture them in my head.

Nuri, with his cousin Mustafa, is a beekeeper in the hills overlooking beautiful Aleppo, Syria. Nuri handles anything to do with the bees and apiaries, and Mustafa researches and manufactures items using the honey and manages their retail business - though the started from scratch, at this point in time they are producing ten tons of honey a year. Nuri had to break his father's heart to become a knowledgable beekeeper, learning the business from his Uncle - Mustafa's father and their common grandfather were beekeepers. It is a lifestyle, a calling that Nuri felt in his heart far stronger than those nudges from his conscious urging him to join his father in his family business, shut up all day in a store selling fabric and notions to the masses. Nuri's wife Afra is a successful artist. Nuri and Afra have a beautiful, contented outdoor life and an eight-year-old son, Sami, the light of their lives. Until.

Afra suffers blindness after watching her son Sami die during a bombing in the streets of Aleppo. Nuri does his best to help his wife and protect his bees as he watches friends, neighbors, eventually, even his partner Mustafa with wife Dahab and daughter Aya gather up essentials and flee to the coast seeking refuge across the Mediterranean Sea. Anywhere else. Afra, in deep mourning, lost and helpless, refuses to leave their home. They will stay with Sami, who is buried in their gardens. Nothing Nuri says will change her mind. When she finally concedes and they join the masses of refugees of Syria, Afghanistan and the African continent, the nightmare continues, unabated. For YEARS.

I live an hours drive from Juarez, Mexico. I thought I was cognisant with the whole idea of pain and loss and fear behind the fleeing citizens of a beleaguered country - leaving all you love, facing a life among strangers and starting all over again because you no longer have a home, a country, a place in your world. I have done what I thought I was capable of to assist those fleeing through Mexico from Central America, Europe, even the Ivory Coast. Locally we hold food drives and clothing drives, gather truckloads of water and diapers, try to provide tea and sympathy. We bombard our legislatures with letters and e-mails. But I truly had no idea. Though presented as fiction, The Beekeeper of Aleppo has truth at the heart. Please read this book. We cannot do enough to assist these families awaiting validation at our borders around the world. And this is a problem that the world must solve before it is too late - for all of us.

I cannot recommend this book enough - it is definitely in my top five reads of 2019.

The book follows Nuri and Afra as they flee Syria and attempt to reunite with other family members in London. Along the way they encounter altruistic as well as opportunistic individuals who either help or hurt their flight (often a mixture of both). This is a masterfully constructed story that will keep you engaged as the author unfolds the past, present, and future for this long married couple who just wants what most of us want: the ability to safely care for one another as they grow old and not be forced to experience another senseless death of a loved one. A wonderful story about the resilience of love and the human spirit.

Wow--such a heartbreaking, enthralling and eye-opening book about a couple fleeing Syria during the war. So well written that you feel that the characters are real. Highly recommended.

I have no words for this book. This is about Syrian refugees and their fight. It will break your heart but you will rejoice in the human spirit.

Such an important story for people to know. There are lots of immigrant stories but this one is especially worth reading for it's insights into another culture.