This wonderful, poignant and absorbing story is set in Cyprus near the partition that was meant to settle the wars of ownership of Cyprus between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. Sadly there are still tensions, despite the partitioning being around 50 years ago. This is the setting where Sri Lankan Nisha found a home as a maid and Nanny-to-be. Nisha’s husband had passed away with real plans for their firstborn and she dearly wanted to honour her husband’s wishes. She needed to meet all the bills for her daughter Kumari and her mother, so her meagre wages were sent back to her native home. She left her two year old daughter in the care of her grandmother but was in regular contact with her family using an iPad to exchange their news.
Nisha found herself billeted by her work agency in Petra’s home in the Greek zone. Petra was also a widow and needed help so that she could go back to her Optician business after her baby was born. Soon Nisha had lived happily in the Greek Cypriot quarter for nine years when one night she disappeared. None of the neighbours or their maids could believe Nisha would desert Petra and so they waited for her return.
Petra’s daughter Aliki loved Nisha dearly. She was so upset when her nanny disappeared. Petra knew very little about Nisha, but she liked her hard working and joyous maid. She was sure Nisha would return but when she didn’t she reported her maid missing. The police officers refused to help, claiming maids just ran away on a whim. So it was left to Petra to run her own investigations amongst her neighbourhood.
Petra’s tenant upstairs Yiannis was also worried about Nisha. The night she went missing he had proposed to her. Immigrant maids were not allowed to have relationships. Their owners forbade it. But they had courted and had fallen in love. Yiannis came downstairs to enquire about Nisha. He was also very worried about her. He offered to help Petra with her investigations. He kept their romance secret because he didn’t want Nisha to be sacked when she came back to her home. Yiannis kept another secret from Petra. His main source of income was moonlighting by illegally trapping migrant songbirds in mist nets on their migration from Africa to Europe. They were frozen and delivered to the taverna with no questions asked. He was not a bad man but had been tempted by the offer of a job helping a lifelong friend after he was made redundant. This was not a job you could quit. One man had his home burnt out when he wanted to leave the job. As soon as Nisha found out about his work she begged him to stop. He would do anything for Nisha, he was gentle and kind. This is Nisha’s sensitive and alluring story, told with empathy and understanding.
Nisha’s story is based on real life events. Effectively she was sold into slavery with no chance to pay back her debts to her work agency. I loved the two parallel stories of Nisha and Yiannis, and also of Nisha and the Songbirds. The storytelling is superb, the imagery bringing the story to life. The author also crafted her characters to twine together their pasts with their presents thereby inviting the reader into their world. I was totally absorbed in this story of a fight for justice and the truth of what happened to Nisha. I hated the attitude of the Cypriot Police. Nisha was not trash and deserved to be treated with humanity and kindness, not with prejudices and discrimination. Although this story is very sad, parts of it were uplifting. Nisha made a journal for her daughter to delight in. She made sacrifices and hard decisions so that she could ensure her own mother and her daughter could manage to support themselves with her help.
Nisha found herself billeted by her work agency in Petra’s home in the Greek zone. Petra was also a widow and needed help so that she could go back to her Optician business after her baby was born. Soon Nisha had lived happily in the Greek Cypriot quarter for nine years when one night she disappeared. None of the neighbours or their maids could believe Nisha would desert Petra and so they waited for her return.
Petra’s daughter Aliki loved Nisha dearly. She was so upset when her nanny disappeared. Petra knew very little about Nisha, but she liked her hard working and joyous maid. She was sure Nisha would return but when she didn’t she reported her maid missing. The police officers refused to help, claiming maids just ran away on a whim. So it was left to Petra to run her own investigations amongst her neighbourhood.
Petra’s tenant upstairs Yiannis was also worried about Nisha. The night she went missing he had proposed to her. Immigrant maids were not allowed to have relationships. Their owners forbade it. But they had courted and had fallen in love. Yiannis came downstairs to enquire about Nisha. He was also very worried about her. He offered to help Petra with her investigations. He kept their romance secret because he didn’t want Nisha to be sacked when she came back to her home. Yiannis kept another secret from Petra. His main source of income was moonlighting by illegally trapping migrant songbirds in mist nets on their migration from Africa to Europe. They were frozen and delivered to the taverna with no questions asked. He was not a bad man but had been tempted by the offer of a job helping a lifelong friend after he was made redundant. This was not a job you could quit. One man had his home burnt out when he wanted to leave the job. As soon as Nisha found out about his work she begged him to stop. He would do anything for Nisha, he was gentle and kind. This is Nisha’s sensitive and alluring story, told with empathy and understanding.
Nisha’s story is based on real life events. Effectively she was sold into slavery with no chance to pay back her debts to her work agency. I loved the two parallel stories of Nisha and Yiannis, and also of Nisha and the Songbirds. The storytelling is superb, the imagery bringing the story to life. The author also crafted her characters to twine together their pasts with their presents thereby inviting the reader into their world. I was totally absorbed in this story of a fight for justice and the truth of what happened to Nisha. I hated the attitude of the Cypriot Police. Nisha was not trash and deserved to be treated with humanity and kindness, not with prejudices and discrimination. Although this story is very sad, parts of it were uplifting. Nisha made a journal for her daughter to delight in. She made sacrifices and hard decisions so that she could ensure her own mother and her daughter could manage to support themselves with her help.