Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live happily in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo – until the unthinkable happens and they are forced to flee. But what Afra has seen is so terrible she has gone blind, and they must embark on a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece towards an uncertain future in Britain.
As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss, but dangers that would overwhelm the bravest of souls. Above all – and perhaps this is the hardest thing they face – they must journey to find each other again.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo is the story of Syrian refugees, shifting backwards and forwards in time between their life in Aleppo, their dangerous journey to England, and their experience in an English refugee centre.
At the start of the book, Nuri and Afra have a happy and peaceful life in Aleppo. Nuri looks after his bees and Afra is successful at her work, painting landscapes of her beloved Syria and selling them in the souk each week.
When war begins to tear at Aleppo, however, tragedy begins to strike. Afra loses her sight and she and Nuri suffer a terrible personal loss. They make the difficult decision to leave their home and embark on a journey that so many refugees have had to make, hoping that anywhere else in the world will be safer than what they are leaving behind. They are buoyed by the fact that Nuri’s cousin has safely reached Yorkshire and they aim to join him there.
Their journey across Europe is expensive and dangerous, and must be done covertly. Parts of it are in the dead of night, and they are acutely conscious that they are putting their lives at risk for a mere hope of a better life elsewhere.
Nuri and Afra are at once relieved and disappointed by their arrival in Britain. Although their perilous journey is over, they are kept indefinitely in a refugee centre in southern England, which has minimal resources and minimal information about the asylum process. The weather is cold, rainy and grey.
Although the ending of the story is left open, it does carry with it a glimmer of hope for Nuri and Afra.
On the whole, I had expected The Beekeeper of Aleppo to have more of an emotional impact on me, especially as Lefteri has first-hand experience of the subject matter from her work in refugee camps in Athens. Nonetheless, it is a moving story and provides an insight into the life-altering journeys thousands of refugees have had to make.
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