‘Isn’t it sad that they are still singing?’ I said. ‘They would have sung until they died...’
What do you do when you finish a book? Punch the air, shout, scream?
My reaction to finishing Songbirds was overwhelming ..physical and emotional. I wanted to shout at the beauty and tragedy of the world it portrayed.
Songbirds is the story of Nisha who came to Cyprus from Sri Lanka to be a maid/nanny for Petra and her daughter. She is a widow, desperate to provide for her family back home, forced overseas for work. Petra, her employer, is also a widow, depending on Nisha for everything. Nisha has found love with Yiannis, but unbeknownst to her he has been hunting for songbirds, caught up in an illegal trade from which he cannot extricate himself. At the start of the story Nisha disappears and Yiannis and Petra embark on their separate searches to find out where she has gone, reflecting on the difference she has made to their lives. And then another woman disappears…
Lefteri brings the same lyrical touch as The Beekeeper to this incredible story, writing again about the experiences of migrants who have been forced to leave home simply to survive. When Yiannis goes again and again to the police to report Nisha’s disappearance he hits a wall of indifference, racism, discrimination. It is clear that in this world these women’s lives count for nothing.
This book tore me apart..reading about the terrible slaying of the beautiful songbirds was utterly heartbreaking and graphic but part of a dialogue about exploitation, corruption, feeding the desires and appetites of the wealthy. The hunters caught up in a net as deadly and impenetrable as that which catches the songbirds. The characters wove themselves into my heart and I was searching for Nisha, desperate to find her, railing against a system where she doesn’t matter. I wanted to shout out at a world where the lives of the songbirds and the women are so dispensable. And again in the midst of all this sadness there is beauty: in blossoming love; in the fluttering of a rescued songbird who has escaped the net; in the courage and determination of the men and women who will search out the truth. What a read!