The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Nuri Ibrahim is a proud father, husband, and beekeeper. He runs the business with his mentor and cousin, Mustafa, a college professor and expert on bees and beekeeping. Nuri's wife, Afra is a supremely talented artist. Their son, Sami, brings immeasurable joy into their lives. Their picture-perfect life is chaotically upended by a totalitarian regime taking over their country. Increasing violence and personal tragedies force them to leave their painstakingly built-up life behind and seek refuge in alien shores, which is expectedly an arduous journey in itself. Personally, I am someone who has an irrational fear of bees, and winged insects in general. To my pleasant surprise, however, I discovered hitherto unknown and very interesting details about bees and the profession, or if I might say so, the art of beekeeping. Afra, Nuri, and Mustafa, like many of their Syrian compatriots, possess an ocean of grief within them, no doubt caused by tragic losses, both material and personal. How they manage to find ways of dealing with this facet of their life is what the book is all about.

The author, Christy Lefteri has worked extensively for the betterment of refugee lives and has in the process interacted and even worked alongside a sizeable number of them. This familiarity is clearly visible in her writing style. The style of narration has a very endearing twist with regard to the division of chapters. This adds to the book's charm and is in a sense, poetic. I personally loved Lefteri's narration, which makes you want to hang on to each word Nuri seems to want to say to you. It is often true that in times of war and strife, the pen is often much mightier than the sword. Lefteri exploits this fact to add another layer to the storyline by means of the e-mail correspondence between Nuri and Mustafa. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is an intricately written book that manages to touch the very soul of a reader by way of the characters sowing and reaping the seeds of hope in spite of the several heartbreaking things the characters witness through their journey, as well as personal experience. The characters could be best described as complexly poignant. The swift destruction of life as they know it, affects the characters, especially Afra, in more ways than imaginable, a scenario that can be best described as death through a thousand cuts. The stories of the "Moroccan Man" and the " Winged Angel", among others, are equally as touching.

On the whole, Lefteri has produced a masterpiece, which is probably on par with works of authors like Khaled Hosseini. I am looking forward to reading more of her works, and hope that you will love this book as much as I did.