"The bees were an ideal society, a small paradise among chaos"
"The bees were an ideal society, a small paradise among chaos"
I love the writing style, some really good descriptions and tone. I do stumble when Lefteri switches perspectives using one word to finish a page/line of the current narrative and start a new page/line of the past narrative- it's refreshing in its difference but doesn't work with my flow of reading. I like the connection Nuri and Mustafa have, learning how they became brothers in the beekeeper business and later their separate and dangerous journeys to the UK. Having Mohammed become a ghost/echo to Nuri of his and Afra's son and the experience all the more haunting along with the PTSD flashbacks and the events in Athens. It both broke and healed my heart as we explore Afra and Nuri dealing with the grief of war, a lost son, asylum seeking and finding one another anew, healing from their grief together, at last. I'm so happy Mustafa came to see Nuri and Afra- finally reunited, though I really was not expecting it to finish so soon! I thought there would be more- to confirm good news, an epilogue of their new lives? Did Nuri and Afra get the help they needed? The ending is a happy, promising end, but it's just how I felt with "All the Light We Cannot See", it felt too abrupt? I do appreciate how Lefteri used various personal stories of refugees and the bee symbolism of "vulnerability and life and hope", especially at the B&B with the lovely surrounding refugee characters and the love for the little bee without wings they adopt.
I love the writing style, some really good descriptions and tone. I do stumble when Lefteri switches perspectives using one word to finish a page/line of the current narrative and start a new page/line of the past narrative- it's refreshing in its difference but doesn't work with my flow of reading. I like the connection Nuri and Mustafa have, learning how they became brothers in the beekeeper business and later their separate and dangerous journeys to the UK. Having Mohammed become a ghost/echo to Nuri of his and Afra's son and the experience all the more haunting along with the PTSD flashbacks and the events in Athens. It both broke and healed my heart as we explore Afra and Nuri dealing with the grief of war, a lost son, asylum seeking and finding one another anew, healing from their grief together, at last. I'm so happy Mustafa came to see Nuri and Afra- finally reunited, though I really was not expecting it to finish so soon! I thought there would be more- to confirm good news, an epilogue of their new lives? Did Nuri and Afra get the help they needed? The ending is a happy, promising end, but it's just how I felt with "All the Light We Cannot See", it felt too abrupt? I do appreciate how Lefteri used various personal stories of refugees and the bee symbolism of "vulnerability and life and hope", especially at the B&B with the lovely surrounding refugee characters and the love for the little bee without wings they adopt.