Songbirds is a thought-provoking novel that explores the treatment of domestic workers. It does so by telling the story of one particular woman, Nisha, who has left her daughter and parents in Sri Lanka to work in Cyprus. As a widowed mother, it is the only way that she can support them. One night Nisha disappears.

It makes no sense because she loves her job, especially taking care of Aliki, the little girl she has been responsible for over the past nine years. It makes no sense because she is in love with her boyfriend, Yiannis, who has proposed to her. It makes no sense to the other maids she is friends with, who know her to be a happy, satisfied woman. It makes no sense because Nisha loves her daughter, Kumari, and talks to her via Facetime twice a week. Yet no one knows what has happened to Nisha and the police aren’t interested in initiating an inquiry because she’s “just” a maid, a foreign worker. So it is up to Petra (Nisha’s employer) and Yiannis to investigate what has happened to Nisha.

Songbirds is the story of their investigation. While they look into all possibilities, we also learn of the many, varied reasons people leave their families behind to become migrant workers. We also see how some of them are abused by their employers (physically, sexually, emotionally) and the limited recourse they have. There is also a brief look into the agencies that bring them in and charge exorbitant fees which have to be repaid from any wages earned.

This is a gripping tale that will stay with you and make you reflect on the many, varied circumstances of Nisha’s life. Well-worth reading.

In the Author’s Note at the end, we learn that this story was influenced by the actual disappearance of several migrant domestic workers in Cyprus where domestic workers are a part of the fabric of Cypriot life. The author notes: "This story is not an attempt to represent the voices of migrant workers or to speak for them. It is an exploration of the ideologies, prejudices, circumstances, and underlying belief systems that can lead to very sad and often catastrophic events."

Christy Lefteri is a beautiful writer and I while I enjoyed The Beekeeper of Aleppo, this story did not hold my interest or attention quite as much. Told in alternating narratives, we follow the story of Nisha, a domestic worker in Cyprus, and her disappearance. While this wasn't the book for me, I'm still a fan and look forward to Lefteri's next book.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my review.

A beautiful story of a missing girl, told in alternating perspectives, one is the missing girl's boyfriend, the other her employer. I wanted to love this book, especially given the important subject matter about the horrible treatment of domestic workers. However I couldn't stay engaged and found myself easily distracted.

Christy Lefteri has an excellentl, almost poetic writing style. I thought The BeeKeeper of Aleppo was a beautiful story and Songbirds again showcases her talent. The author does a wonderful job showing the heartache of domestic workers leaving their children in their native countries and doing all they can to help that family sustain itself financially. A group not cared about by many. The author indicates that the novel is based on real life facts and therefore she needs to be true to those facts. Unfortunately the story is one of heartbreak. I am hopeful that Christy Lefteri's next book will find a subject that gives us some space for a happier ending.

Set in Cypus, the story centers around the disappearance of a domestic employee. Beautifully written story that includes themes of immigration, family, and adversity.  An allegorical tale that weaves literary fiction and mystery.  Inspirational and heart wrenching.

What a heartbreakingly, poetic book. This is a novel of the classes and how we treat missing persons differently by their race, income and standing. There are a lot of themes to this story as well as a lot of metaphors. I think what I liked most was the fact that the author based this on the real life disappearances of housekeepers in Cyprus. I don't have the talent for words to explain how wonderfully written this novel is. The misery of domestics is portrayed on every page and I felt that I got to know a lot of the characters. I was so sad when I had finished the book and look forward to reading more of Ms. Lefteri's work because this was a really powerful story, beautifully written with with well-drawn characters. Highly recommended.

This is an interesting story about the (invisible) women that leave their countries to try to find better opportunities working as maids in European countries. The book centers around Nisha, a maid that works for a family in Cyprus and suddenly goes missing. After she goes missing, her employer, Petra, learns a lot of things she didn't know about their beloved maid - like the fact that she was in love with one of their neighbors. And when trying to find her, she discovers the sad reality of most of the immigrant maids, that have to endure all sorts of bad things in order to save some money to send to their families back in their countries. Like caged birds, they are trapped with no freedom, and no perspectives of ever going back to their old lives with their families.

Songbirds is a haunting story of love and loss and discovery.

Nisha is a Sri Lankan maid who has left her family to move to Cyprus to take care of widowed Petra and her daughter. This relationship spans about a decade, yet Petra actually knows little about Nisha.

Yiannis, a poacher, lives in the upstairs flat above Petra. He and Nisha have a forbidden relationship.
One night Nisha goes missing. Thus, the search begins with Yiannis and Petra working together to find the missing maid. Laid bare are attitudes and secrets.

We hear about Nisha through Petra’s and Yiannis’ voices, but never directly from her. I think that works because it gives elements of mystery and urgency to the story.

I love the physical descriptions of Cyprus and the myths and stories from that region. The writing is smooth, filled with symbolism and immediately draws the reader into the emotional search for Nisha. The author opens our eyes to the plight of those who leave their families and their homelands to find financial security and a more stable life.
I recommend Songbirds. The story is one that you continue to contemplate long after the final pages are read.

Thank you #netgalley, #ballentine, and #songbirds for an arc of this book.

Wow this was such a deeply moving, emotional novel about class and status. I felt attached to the characters. Beautifully written. I cannot wait to read more by Lefteri. I highly recommend this for book clubs as it will generate great discussion.

It took me a while to get into Songbirds. I couldn't figure out where it was going, but it was a non-stop read for me once I did. I especially liked reading the author's notes at the end when she explains how she came up with the idea for the book, etc. Many young women worldwide leave their home countries to work as maids/nannies in foreign countries. Often, and I've seen it happen, the women are abused, neglected, and forced to work constantly, all in the name of sending home extra money to support the families they left behind.

Good for Lefteria to research and write about this topic and to interview different maids to learn and gain more information about their lives and what they go through to support their families back home.

Although I loved Lefteri’s previous novel, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, this book fell somewhat flat for me. It focuses on Nisha, a widowed immigrant to Cyprus from Sri Lanka, who works as a maid to support the young daughter she left behind. Nisha’s story — particularly her mysterious disappearance — is told through narratives from Petra, for whom Nisha works keeping house and caring for Petra’s daughter Aliki, and from Yiannis, a poacher of songbirds who is having a relationship with Nisha.

Although the story is a very interesting one (and one that is based upon true events), I just could not connect with, let alone warm to, the characters. And despite Lefteri’s prose, which is beautiful, often lyrical, I found it hard to stay engaged in the novel until the end. I stayed with it to see what had happened to Nisha, but I could have easily stopped reading at points.

As a fan of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, I was anxious to see what Lefteri would write next. Songbirds explores the disappearance of a Sri Lankan maid/nanny from her employer’s home on the island of Cyprus. Nisha had worked for Petra for nine years and was more of a mother to Aliki than Petra. But the police just blow off her disappearance, assuming she had left for better employment possibilities. SoPetra undertakes to investigate on her own. Yiannis is Petra’s upstairs tenant and is in love with Nisha. It took me a while to warm to Yiannis as he is a poacher of songbirds.
The book is an interesting treatise on the relationship between employers and servants. The servant takes care of everything for the family, but the employer knows so little about the servant. “Who was this woman who I had previously seen only as a shadow of myself?” It’s so sad to think of the number of women forced to leave their own families in order to provide them with financial support. And how taken advantage of they are - the agent fees, the hours required. It’s one step up from slavery.
The book is beautifully written and filled with symbolism. We never hear from Nisha herself, she is always seen through the eyes of others.
The book has an added poignancy as it’s based on the true life disappearances of domestic workers in Cyprus. In the author’s note, Lefteri makes an interesting point about what constitutes “a choice” when it comes to leaving your country of origin. I recommend this for those looking for a book club selection that would lead to some meaningful discussions.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

The writing is beautiful, though may prove confusing at the beginning especially for adolescent, young adult, or older adult readers. Those who like a complex storyline will find a beautiful story to sink into.

A powerfully written, beautiful story bringing to life an array of sympathetic characters and the weaving in of their struggles to adapt to a new normal after the disappearance of beloved migrant laborer, Nisha.

Christy Lefteri is a master storyteller. She manages to take a small corner of the world, focusing on two main characters with a handful of secondary ones, and breaks your heart in two.

Taking place on the small island of Cyprus, Yiannis dreams of a different way of life from poaching, catching tiny songbirds as they migrate from Africa to Europe and selling them on the black market. He wants to marry Nisha, originally from Sri Lanka and working as a nanny and maid, earning just enough money to send back home to support her daughter. Then, Nisha vanishes. The police say Nisha ran away, as these domestic workers are apt to do when chasing a way to make more money, but Petra doesn't believe it. Nisha has become an integral part of the family over the last decade, raising Petra's daughter and running the household. She wouldn't just leave. Petra realizes she barely knew Nisha and sets out to discover what happened to her.

I loved this book. It's a mystery and thriller because I want to know what happened to Nisha, if she is alive or dead. I felt for Yiannis, who doesn't know if Nisha left because of something he said or because Nisha can't come to terms with a new stage of happiness after all she has sacrificed for her daughter. Petra bugged me in the beginning but I came to understand how it was easier to let someone else take care of and raise her daughter as she struggled with her own demons, starting before she even gave birth. Petra never had anyone to help her and overcome her struggles, but found it easier to retreat back into her work and need to provide for her daughter as someone else did all the emotional and physical work.

Lefteri's book raises awareness about the lives and seemingly flightiness of domestic workers, people who work to make money for their families and don't necessarily leave without any warning for someplace better, or who might get sucked into a life they didn't envision for themselves. It brings a voice to the real disappearances happening every day to women, those who need someone to speak out about their plight and the search for justice for those who no longer can.

Don't judge a person by anything other than the content of their character, because we don't really know their circumstances. The color of skin, position in society, or their language should not make use judge someones worth.
This story which follows migrants that have come to Cyprus to find work to help support their families back home. Because they were different, customs, language and ways of doing things they often became almost invisible, to those hiring them, as they never really tried to find out about their lives.
The author is a wonderful writer, who pulls one into the story so easily. The main characters are so wonderfully described to us, mainly Nishas, Petra, Yiannis and Aliki.
It is really a story about love, longing and actions which definitely worked against some of the characters.
The author stated that she took some of the story line from some true events that happened in Cyprus.
I have also read the authors book, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, which I also enjoyed. Neither book is a light read, but definitely they make one think about things that are happening around the world.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for a copy of this book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

From the prize-winning author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, this is the heartbreakingly tragic story of the disappearance of a Sri Lankan nanny working in Cyprus. The story was inspired by the real-life disappearances of domestic workers in Cyprus.

Nisha makes the decision to move to Cyprus after her husband dies in a mine collapse, leaving her mother to care for her young daughter. Nisha arrives in Cyprus, and begins working for Petra, who is pregnant and has lost her husband to cancer. Nisha becomes housekeeper to Petra and nanny to Petra’s daughter, Aliki. Nisha also becomes lover to Petra’s tenant, Yiannis. Then one night, Nisha vanishes. When she discovers Nisha missing in the morning, Petra asks the neighbors if they saw her. It appears Nisha left the house in the evening after Petra and Aliki were asleep. The neighbors saw her walking, but no one saw her with anyone. Nisha is friends with other housekeepers, and they are certain that she would not just leave without warning, and certainly not without her passport and daughter’s lock of hair. While Petra eventually goes to the police, they dismiss the disappearance as time-consuming nonsense as these types of women leave all the time. Yet the more Petra digs into Nisha’s life, the more she is convinced something sinister is at play. And the more she uncovers about Nisha’s life, the more she realizes how she never knew the woman living in her home and raising her child.

Petra and Yiannis join forces to search for the truth behind Nisha’s disappearance, and are stunned to learn that other housekeepers, and their children, have disappeared. Their search leads Petra to an understanding of the reality of the choices these women make, some leaving everything and everyone behind, sacrificing their own happiness to bring a better life to their children.

Songbirds is an allegory for these women. Yiannis is a poacher, trapping songbirds with glue sticks and mist nets to sell them to restaurants who prepare them as forbidden delicacies. I will say that the descriptions of the trapping left me squeamish, and disgusted. And the more I thought about it, some of the disgust came more as an uneasy realization that the exploitation of these women would probably garner less interest and concern than the poaching and eating of songbirds.

Lefteri's writing is eloquent, with impressive character development. The main characters’ personalities are portrayed with depth, and each undergoes changes over the course of the story. This is a powerful book of love, loss and empathy.

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"Songbirds" by Christy Lefteri is a fictional work set in Cyprus about the search by her employer, Petra, for a Sri Lankan maid, Nisha, who has gone missing and Nisha's relationship with her upstairs neighbor, Yiannis, who catches songbirds. "Songbirds" highlights the invisible population of domestic workers from third world countries on whom people in Cyprus, and across the world, are dependent for cheap care. There's also an apparent disinvestment and lack of concern about the well-being of people like Nisha that is clear through Petra and other character's interactions with the police. I enjoyed the story, and it is definitely has more of a mystery element than most of the books I read. Yiannis truly loves Nisha, and it is heartbreaking to experience the pain that all of the characters go through as the search for Nisha continues to be hopeless. Jumping to the end, I appreciated how Lefteri provides some background for the story, which is based on the disappearance of multiple people from Cyprus a few years ago. I'm interested in reading some of the author's other works.

Christy Lefteri is a beautiful storyteller. Her first novel, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, captured my imagination and heart. This second novel is set at a much slower pace but is equally as exquisite. The author tells the story of a young woman who has gone missing and her family and friends searching for her in the aftermath of her disappearance. A compelling story of love, family, and the fight for truth. Thanks to Random House, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the chance to review this copy before publication.

Pub Date: 03 August 2021
Star Rating: 4.5

Thanks to netgalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Nisha works as a maid for Petra and a nanny for Petra’s daughter, Aliki. Yiannis lives in an attic apartment above Petra’s home and is secretly in love with Nisha. One evening Nisha disappears and Petra and Yiannis spend the rest of the story trying to find her. The police aren’t interested because Nisha is a Sri Lankan migrant worker and not worth their time. Told in alternating chapters between Petra and Yiannis’s points of view this is a beautifully told story of love, loss, and the often overlooked problems faced by those leaving their homeland in search of a better life. At first I didn’t understand the title of the book because Yiannis’s poaching of songbirds was only a small part of the narrative. Yet upon reflection I realized that like the songbirds who were caught in the poaching nets while migrating through Cypress, Nisha and her fellow migrants were entangled in a web of servitude they could not escape as they work to pay off the handlers who brought them to “freedom.” Highly recommended.