The Beekeeper Of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

          This is one of those books that you feel you should give a glowing review to simply because of it's subject matter.  It does give an insight in to the plight of the refugee and what some people go through simply to get away from a regime, a war or simply to try and make a better life for them and their family.  All too often refugees are demonised politically and this book attempts to give their side of the story.  Unfortunately, it is only a partial success.

Told from the point of view of Nuri Ibrahim it tells the story of one family from war torn Syria who are struggling to reach England.  Terrifying boat journeys, unsafe camps, smug officialdom and corrupt smugglers.  All counterpointed with flashbacks to their earlier life in Aleppo, a life that was happy and fulfilling until war strikes.  Yes, it manages to explain their reasons for flight.  Yes, it manages to give a small insight in to the trauma of that escape.  What it didn't manage to do was really engage me.

The time points of the story leap about all over the place, seemingly at random so there is no continuity in the story.  I understand the use of flashback but by these being of random events and having no contiguity it becomes a little confusing.  Is this before the war? During the war? Before Afra and Nuri even meet?  To be honest it could be any of them at any time.  Yes, this does show how scattered Nuri's thought processes and behaviour have become but it makes for a frustrating reading.

There is also no resolution to Afra and Nuri's story.  It leaves them still in the limbo of immigration, but no indication of whether they will be accepted or deported.  Descriptions of life in the hostel they have finally reached are good but it is really the vast range of characters they meet along their journey who make the story.  People that we meet very briefly and are given no backstory for and just have to take them as we find them; much as the Ibrahims have to.  From Angeliki to Nadim, The Moroccan to Domenico, very different people but all in the same situation.

I did like the use of the bees as a signifier for hope.  A thread that runs right through the story and, I suppose, acts as a metaphor for all that is wrong with society as a whole.

In general an okay read but confuses itself frequently.  A more linear telling of this story would probably have worked better.

THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.