Songbirds - emotional!

So, my first book finished in 2022 is a hangover from the previous year, and it's a corker. Songbirds by Christy Leferti (who also wrote the phenomenon that was The Beekeeper of Aleppo) is the story of Nisha, who, desperate to give her young daughter a future, has left her behind and travelled thousands of miles to become a maid in Cyprus. She enters the household of Petra, newly widowed and with a young baby, and helps to raise Petra's daughter over many years. It's not until Nisha goes missing, however, that Petra starts to appreciate how central Nisha has been to her and her daughter. Petra goes to the police, but they aren't interested in such a foreigner and assume she's done a flit across the border. Only Petra and Yiannis, the man who rents the upstairs apartment from Petra and, unbeknown to her, was Nisha's lover, seem to be concerned for Nisha's safety. Yiannis is also a poacher, illegally trapping songbirds as they migrate across the island. He is convinced that it's because of him that she was taken, but as they both seek answers, it becomes apparent that she isn't the only migrant domestic worker to have gone missing. This book is an emotional roller coaster in that we see the obvious love that Nisha brought to the people around her, as well as those she'd left behind in her homeland. We also see Petra building a long overdue relationship with her daughter now that Nisha isn't there to fill that gap. But there is always the dark underbelly of what has happened to Nisha rumbling along. The poaching of songbirds migrating across Cyprus is used as a metaphor for the treatment of female domestic workers who migrate to find a way to earn money for their families back home. They have sacrificed so much, yet the majority of the native population have scant disregard for them. In a word, heartbreaking! Inspired by a real case on Cyprus, the author has woven a story of love and one that should open everyone's eyes to the plight of women migrants working across Europe who become as trapped as the songbirds in the mist nets. These women "owe" so much money to their "agents", that they are caught between sending money home so that their families can survive and not being able to put enough by to pay off their debt and return home themselves. With stunning, often other worldly descriptions and beautifully drawn characters, I think this is a book that will stay with me for some time. I read the audio edition which was fantastically narrated by Art Malik, Indira Varma, George Georgiou, Lolita Chakrabarti and Christy Leferti.

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 400 print pages.

Price I paid: free, borrowed from library.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.