Songbirds is beautifully written, the descriptions of the place, the people and their stories brings everything vividly to life for the reader. It will stay with me for a very long time, I found it deepy sad but yet a story that needs to be told.
The novel is told from a dual perspective of Petra the young widow who employs a live in help, Nisha, to run her life, home and mother her daughter and Yiannis who rents the flat above who earns his living from poaching the songbirds as they migate from Africa and Europe and selling them on the black market.
One day Nisha leaves late at night to run and errand and never returns. The police arent interested at all in trying to find her, they are incredibly prejudiced about the migrant women that come to work in Cyprus. Petra realises that she needs to find out what has hapened to Nisha herself. In her seach Petra realises that she has spent the last ten years living with a woman she knows nothing about, she took fo grated her presence and servitude. Her eyes are opened to the darker side of migrant life for the women around her, their limited options and vulnerability. Christy Lefteri bring these women's stories to life in a deeply empathetic way.
The novel is told from a dual perspective of Petra the young widow who employs a live in help, Nisha, to run her life, home and mother her daughter and Yiannis who rents the flat above who earns his living from poaching the songbirds as they migate from Africa and Europe and selling them on the black market.
One day Nisha leaves late at night to run and errand and never returns. The police arent interested at all in trying to find her, they are incredibly prejudiced about the migrant women that come to work in Cyprus. Petra realises that she needs to find out what has hapened to Nisha herself. In her seach Petra realises that she has spent the last ten years living with a woman she knows nothing about, she took fo grated her presence and servitude. Her eyes are opened to the darker side of migrant life for the women around her, their limited options and vulnerability. Christy Lefteri bring these women's stories to life in a deeply empathetic way.