“One day, Nisha vanished and turned to gold.”
Working all hours God sends yet still unable to survive, Nisha is forced to leave her mother, baby daughter and Sri Lanka behind when she accepts a job in Cyprus as a maid and nanny through an agency for migrant domestic workers. 9 years later she disappears into thin air.
I love how Nisha is brought to life through the recollections of Petra, her employer and single working mother, and Yiannis, her lover and songbird poacher, in alternating chapters as they question both those close to her and themselves in their quest to find her.
The descriptions of the Cypriot landscape, lime sticks and mist nets, gem mines and street stalls and the diverse neighbourhood in divided Nicosia are sublime.
The soul-wrenching stories within stories of freedom and entrapment, motherhood and love, suffering and loss, what ifs and if onlys are inspired.
The inhumane treatment of migrant domestic workers is an underlying theme throughout the novel and the author’s closing letter emphasises the reality of this widespread discrimination.
Hauntingly sad and beautifully written Songbirds left me with feelings of hope and resolution and … Christine McVie’s Songbird playing in my head.
Working all hours God sends yet still unable to survive, Nisha is forced to leave her mother, baby daughter and Sri Lanka behind when she accepts a job in Cyprus as a maid and nanny through an agency for migrant domestic workers. 9 years later she disappears into thin air.
I love how Nisha is brought to life through the recollections of Petra, her employer and single working mother, and Yiannis, her lover and songbird poacher, in alternating chapters as they question both those close to her and themselves in their quest to find her.
The descriptions of the Cypriot landscape, lime sticks and mist nets, gem mines and street stalls and the diverse neighbourhood in divided Nicosia are sublime.
The soul-wrenching stories within stories of freedom and entrapment, motherhood and love, suffering and loss, what ifs and if onlys are inspired.
The inhumane treatment of migrant domestic workers is an underlying theme throughout the novel and the author’s closing letter emphasises the reality of this widespread discrimination.
Hauntingly sad and beautifully written Songbirds left me with feelings of hope and resolution and … Christine McVie’s Songbird playing in my head.