This novel delves into timely and important subjects with great heart. Lefteri spent several years working in Greece as a UNICEF volunteer, helping refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. Her empathy and passion for their cause is more than evident in her writing, which essentially felt like an amalgamous character study of those she most certainly encountered in her work. Perhaps that's where I felt a little disconnected from this book, as it was hard for me to feel an urgency to pick it up without a good deal of narrative drive. The book begins where Nuri and Aftra end up, so there isn't a question if they will make it to their ultimate destination. There is also a sort of plot twist that is not at all a surprise, and I'm not sure if it was meant to be, or if it was to illustrate the state of Nuri's PTSD. The illustrative imagery and symbolism of the bees, flight, and our dream life versus reality was lovely, as was the push and pull of husband and wife finding their way back to each other after immense loss.
"I realize I have forgotten to love her. Here is her body, here are the lines on her face, here is the feel of her skin, here is the wound across her cheek that leads into her, like a road, all the way to her heart. These are the roads we take."
In the end I would say that stories of refugees are something we could use more of, not less, and I respect Lefteri for putting this work into the world. Increasing awareness, creating empathy for those that happen to be born into a different life, or a life that could just as easily become ours is so vital these days. I honestly think it would have been a more impactful read had it been written by someone of Syrian descent or had been a nonfiction account. Since I've already started looking for some recommendations, I think that this book had an impact on me, regardless. So far the recs I've seen are: The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe, We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled by Wendy Pearlman, and The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar.
Thank you so much to the folks at Penguin Random House/Ballantine for a complimentary advance copy!

Oh, this book... this book is beautiful, heartbreaking, thought provoking, and just a little bit frustrating. I spent a good portion of the beginning being frustrated with Afra and how she acted, but as more of her story came to light the more I realized that she had every right to be the way she was. I loved Nuri and found myself rooting for their journey and dying to find out what happens. I wish this book had 3 more chapters. I just wasnt ready for the sudden ending.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a beautifully told, heartbreaking story that puts a face on what it means to have survived the brutality of Aleppo and journeyed on the long, arduous road of a Syrian refugee. Nuri was a beekeeper in Aleppo. After the death of their son from a bomb and facing dire circumstances, Nuri and his wife Afra make the decision to leave Syria. Their ultimate quest to reach England is plagued with a myriad of obstacles.

Christy Lefteri’s style of writing is lyrical and her portrayal of each character really captures their essence and brings them to life on a spectrum of levels. Learning of the refugees plight sharply contrasts the life my family and I have and makes me so grateful for my life here in America. Like many stories of the holocaust, this is a sad but necessary story that desperately needed to be told.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Ballantine Books and Christy Lefteri for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is astonishing, mesmerising, absorbing, overwhelming, heartbreaking, moving, poignant, exceptional. Christy Lefteri has produced a quite incredible work of fiction that extends beyond television news and what is printed in the papers: giving a voice to the men, women and children living amongst the Syrian conflict; humanising the suffering, misery and despair of refugees through excellent storytelling and characterisation; and opening our eyes to the dark reality of war on a much deeper level. The novel, influenced by the author’s volunteer work in an Athens refugee centre and the stories of these families, centres around a beekeeper and his wife. As their lives are torn apart by war they venture to escape from Syria and embark on a treacherous journey through Turkey and Greece toward Britain. This is a captivating book of the darkness in loss and light in human spirit, finding love in the midst of war, the bee symbolising life and hope in a shattered world. Lefteri’s fiction is well researched, written and conveyed, and the author should be commended for utilising the power of storytelling in such a responsible way. This is one of my favourite books of the year and highly recommended.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri is the story of Nuri Ibrahim, a Syrian refugee in England. He and his wife, Afra are trying to claim asylum. As they go through the process, Nuri recalls his life in Syria as a beekeeper with his cousin, Mustafa and the turning point when his beloved country was no longer safe for him or Afra. Mustafa journeys ahead to England and eagerly waits for him there. The story switches back and forth between the present day in England and Nuri’s recounting their journey as refugees. From being smuggled out of the country under the darkness of night to being held as a camp in Greece while their request is processed. Nuri sees the different people who are running from horrors in their home countries. He hears the stories of the horrors they each suffered. He even witnesses horrors himself inside the camp. Will they be safe once again? Will Nuri and Afra be granted asylum? Will they be reunited with Mustafa?
The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a beautiful story of the human suffering that the political warfare creates. A man who lived a simple life finds himself running for his life because he refused to take up arms. He is a man who is battling his own demons and memories as he tries to take care of his wife in a country which looks at them with suspicion. It is a book that needs to read slowly as you take in the scene, the situation and the actions the characters take as they try to survive. According to the author’s afterword, she was inspired to write this story after she was a volunteer at a UNICEF refugee center. Ms. Lefteri truly compares the desperation of the situation as well as the faint sliver of hope that they can live in peace once again. I highly recommend The Beekeeper of Aleppo!

The Beekeeper of Aleppo
is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook

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I didn’t wrongly type those dots. I’m speechless and still trying to gather the broken pieces of my heart but when i glue the crumbled pieces, my heart will consist of mismatched puzzle pieces because this book already stole a huge piece of me that could be never ever replace!
Afra and Nuri created an ordinary, happy life with their child, the jobs which fits their passions, a house, a land with bees buzzing around and making their peaceful happy dances. Nuri’s easygoing, friendly, emotional and touchy characteristics matched with the nature of bees. He was the shepherd, Godfather of them, knowing their needs which helped him to create a harmonious life with them.
Afra is a talented artist who has third eye to help her to be differentiated from her competitors. Her visionary and creation were beyond the words. Till she lost three of her eyes with a bomb cut her all lifelines.
They lost their land in he fire...
They lost their child...
They lost their beautiful ordinary life...
Worst part of it THEY LOST THEIR HOPE!
Sigh... I need a moment right now... This book is too heavy, heart wrenching read. I thought that I have high level pain tolerance but I couldn’t be so wrong! I can read so many gory, harsh, terrifying thriller books or watch bloody slasher movies but when it comes to the books which gives your stomach churning, heart ripping sensations, I stop and freeze because the fiction part was over and reality kicks in!
Afra and Nuri left their country, their old life, their loved ones, their traditions, their passions, memories, friends, childhood, home behind to run away to save their lives.
They’re literally not in Kansas anymore,they’re living in the purgatory !
Neither they can live in the past nor they can live in the present time.
The dangerous journey started from Turkey and continued to Greece and finalized in the UK was heart throbbing and struggling experience but they finally made it against all odds.
Now they were waiting for the immigration officers’ decision about their lives as two exhausted souls who were afraid of touching each other and holding their deceased son’s memories.
It was tragic, heavy, hard, struggling and one of most realistic read for me! I loved the conclusion of the story!
I’m a little angry at the author for giving me so many ugly cries and taking out of my vulnerable piece of my heart!
She changed me and gave me insightful look about the one of the most important social, political issues of our modern world by ripping my heart ...
And I ‘m so thankful to her for this one of the greatest social and political awareness/ emotional reading!
So much special thanks to Netgalley and Ballentine Books for sending me ARC COPY like an early Christmas gift on August in exchange my honest review !

This stunning small book is filled with beauty and with loss. The Nuri and Afra Ibrahim have left Syria and everything they have ever known after the death of their son, and the destruction of their lives by war. This is the story of their migration north, and their attempts to find a way to live with what they have lost. Everyday occurrences trigger horrific memories for the couple, a camera becomes a gun; a bird becomes a bomber; a laugh becomes a scream.

As I finished this beautiful novel, I was left wondering yet again why our society has become so fearful of immigrants, particularly refugees. Perhaps we can’t see what is happening because we are so afraid to look.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Heartbreaking, powerful and so beautifully written. This book and its characters will stay with me for a long time. Such an important read and one I highly recommend.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

In The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri took her transformative volunteer experience, working with Syrian refugees in Athens, Greece and turned it into a heartbreaking, inspiring, raw and, ultimately, hopeful story. Fleeing from their home in war torn Aleppo was not a choice for Nuri and Afra. It was a matter of survival, even though accessing a network of smugglers meant facing a terrifying, uncertain path in an attempt to find safety.

This was a 5 star read for me, despite my heart being torn in half each chapter. I’d be hard pressed to name a more powerful, impactful and important read in recent memory. It would be impossible to come away from this story untouched and unchanged. Nuri and Afra’s journey will stay with me for years to come.

This is such a beautiful and truthful story. As the author note in the end mentions, it's a work of fiction, but could as well be true since it is based on reality. Nuri is a beekeeper in Aleppo, but as the war expands, he knows he needs to leave all behind and escape Syria with his wife Afra. The book is about their journey from Syria to England, and the many stops and uncertainties in between. It's beautifully constructed - I like how one chapter connects to the other through one word in common. The last word in a chapter is also the first word in the next chapter, and so on. Characters are so well constructed, especially Afra. This book will definitely become a classic!

This book hit me hard from its first pages; so much so that I almost stopped reading it. I have been reading so many World War II novels lately, which all dealt with death, physical and emotional trauma, grief, and the struggle to survive, that I was uncertain that I wanted to finish another book dealing with the same subjects, albeit in a different war. I am so glad I stuck with this book, as it is so worth reading. The author, Christy Lefteri, bases her book on stories she heard firsthand from Syrian refuges during time she spent working with a relief agency in Greece. Ms. Lefteri does an outstanding job creating believable characters who you will care deeply about long before the end of the book. PTSD in soldiers is frequently recognized and sometimes written about, but not so much in civilians.. Ms Lefteri does a very credible job depicting two entirely different PTSD outcomes in her main characters, beekeeper Nuri and his artist wife Afra, who flee Aleppo, Syria. Their harrowing and difficult journey across the Mediterranean Sea, then through Turkey and Greece to England in order to be reunited with Nuri's cousin and fellow beekeeper Mustafa, is heart wrenching. At the same time, the author shows us the triumph of the will to live and the immense effort to start anew that some survivors of war are able to muster.

I highly recommend this book. I appreciate receiving a copy from NetGalley and Penguin Random House in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you @ballantinebooks and @netgalley for my review copy. #partner

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is out today. After reading Exit West, I craved another refugee story. I wanted to hear more from the perspective of the characters. This is a work of fiction but reminds us that actual people are living this fear. Having to leave their beautiful country because of the hatred of others. I couldn’t imagine not having the every day luxuries that we are afforded. It reminds me not to take life for granted and the freedom we have. Author Christy Lefteri did an amazing job with this novel.

I am just about finished and have been taking my time to savor and really picture the journey Nuri and Afra are on. It is very descriptive which allows you to imagine their journey.

This gem is out today 8/27.

This review can also be found on www.instagram.com/kristinasbookishlife

Christy Lefteri wrote a beautiful book that tore up my heart and healed it too. It was sweet and sad, lovely and loving. It is a simple book, filled with emotion. I enjoyed it from the first page until the last.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is the story of Nuri, and his wife Afra, who were living and loving in Syria before the war. Nuri was a beekeeper in Aleppo, and of his wife Afra was an artist. Like so many in Syria the war tears their lives apart, and the two of them suffer one of the worst losses a couple can face. Afra is also left blind which is devastating to her as an artist. The war and all of the atrocities that accompanied it continued to escalate and Nuri and Afra realize that they must leave their home. They become asylum seekers; people with no home.

The book follows Nuri and Afra on their journey. The physcial one that takes them across countries by foot and public transport and by sea. But it also follows them on the journey where they learn to deal with outright hatred and prejudice while trying to overcome trauma and heal from grief. The journey is equally emotional for the reader. We must encounter the ravages that people encounter and worse, those that we inflict. We must encounter grief, anger and pain, but we are also treated to the love and hope that helps us to heal. The novel is timely, hopeful and relevant.

I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley, the author and Ballantine Books in exchange for my honest review. Thank you.

I found the subject matter of this book difficult to read. It’s timely but also quite disturbing and upsetting. That’s not to say that it isn’t important and well-written and very moving.

How do you review a book that took your heart from page one and slowly and surely ripped it into little itty-bitty shreds and by the end had flung it to the winds? Because that is what this book did to me and my heart. And I will never be the same. And when you read the author's note at the end, your heart will further rip into shreds as you read just why and how she came to write this amazing, gorgeous, hideously sad, horrific book. That note alone made me ugly cry. I admire this author so much - to be able to go to a place like Athens, to work with and amongst the refugees and not be broken by the work and the stories and the pain and suffering; that takes a special kind of person and clearly she is that. It is no wonder that she had to write this book - it must have just poured out of her at times.

The story of Nuri and Afra will never, ever leave you and even in the most horrific parts of this story, that is not a bad thing. I pray that people who read this soften their hearts, breathe in empathy, and shower grace on those who have gone through what Nuri and Afra did. NOT every story is black and white. People leave their homes for reasons we cannot ever imagine [as we sit in our privilege] and this story just amplifies this and reminds us that we are ALL human being and there but for the grace of God, go I.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Ballentine Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a beautiful story of a couple fleeing war torn Syria. Nuri, a beekeeper, and his wife, Afra, escape Syria after they are left with nothing and their son is killed.
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The author takes us on their harrowing journey from Syria, Turkey, Greece and finally the UK. Afra is blind after witnessing the bomb that killed her son and Nuri seems like he has it together but he is actually suffering from PTSD! By the end of the book there is hope and hope is a precious thing when there wasn’t any.
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I think it’s important to note that the author volunteered for two years in a refugee center in Greece and returned to Greece in order to learn not only Arabic but to get research for this book. This is actually a short read but quite impactful. My only thing was that it was hard at times to distinguish between flashbacks and the present.
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The summer before my senior of college I was able to volunteer at a non-profit that was helping refugees, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I heard so many inspiring stories that summer and I will never forget it. The kids were so resilient and would always run and hug me when they would see me. These people left behind everything they knew but just like in the book, they still had HOPE.
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Thanks to @netgalley and @randomhouse for my review copy.

This is perhaps the most poignant book I have read thus far this year. Yet the book is filled with beauty and love.

Nuri is a beekeeper in Aleppo, Syria. His wife Afra is an artist. Amidst the Syrian Civil War Afra was left blind when she witnessed their young son killed by a bomb. Their nephew Mustafa fled Syria earlier and is now in England. Mustafa has bought some beehives and started his own business. He begs Nuri and Afra to join him, thus they set off, joining thousands of other refugees fleeing to what they hope is a better life, a safer life. It is a long and danger-filled trek to and through Turkey and then through Greece with no guarantee they will be granted asylum if and when they reach England.

Theirs is a journey of moving through their grief and rediscovering themselves, individually and as a couple. Along the way they meet people who will take advantage of them, some who will hurt them, and some who will give them the strength to continue their journey.


The author worked as a volunteer at a refugee center in Athens, Greece. The stories she heard and the people she met led her to writing this compassionate account of their stories.


I highly recommend this book. Thank you Ballantine Books for the advance copy. Opinions are my own.

Heartbreaking story of a family who has suffered so much loss in Syria. Afra is so grief stricken she cannot grasp the notion at first that she must flee her country. Nuri is at least strong enough that he still has a will to survive. I enjoyed the emails between Nuri and his cousin Mustafa as it offered hope.

Although this was so terribly sad, I truly enjoyed it.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book tugged at my heartstrings. As millions of people throughout the world are displaced from their homes due to civil wars, political unrest, financial distress, and economic hardship, this book explores the issue of these families as they seek refugee status in other countries. The journeys are long and hard and full of terror. There’s a general sense of danger every minute of the day. The people are often helpless and at the mercy of complete strangers.

Lefteri dives into one family’s experience as they journey through from Syria to Greece to their final destination of the UK. Nuri and Afra are (understandably) badly damaged by what happened in Syria before they decided to leave. Their son was killed by a bomb and it also blinded Afra. Nuri is plagued by PTSD and has multiple flashbacks. In the author’s note at the end of the book, she mentions that she volunteered at a UNICEF-supported refugee center in Athens, Greece and that she had a tutor who was a refugee from Syria, so I’m sure elements of this book are very realistic. For that fact alone, my heart hurts. I cannot, under any circumstances, understand how awful and horrific these journeys must be. Because there are many out there like me who have no idea what is really happening outside of our safe bubbles, it’s important that books like this are written, promoted, and shared…just to increase our awareness, empathy, and sympathy a little bit more.

While I appreciate the motivation for writing the book, I found a lot of the writing to be confusing. It was hard to distinguish between reality and Nuri’s flashbacks. I found myself questioning what I’d read and if I fully grasped the story. The ending felt very rushed to me and didn’t tie up the loose ends that well. I thought the writing had potential, but I ultimately didn’t connect to the story like I’d hoped to.

3.5 stars rounded ups to 4

What a gripping story. I couldn't put it down, and I think this should be on everyone's list to read this year! It's heart wrenching, but so inspiring! This is a book that I feel like I will read again and again!

Thank you #NetGalley for an early copy of #TheBeekeeperOfAleppo for review!