Review 53: The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We are given little details at a time about what happened to the refugees our main characters Nuri and Afra, so as not to overwhelm the readers, as obviously they were. They suffered many distressing events before they fled Aleppo, Syria, and slowly make their way to England. They endure despite all the difficulties and trauma from before leaving their country, and what happens in the camps. PTSD is portrayed as almost sleepwalking, our narrator see's what's not there....Ironically his wife, Afra does not see anything, gone blind.

The writing was decent but I did not like the gimmick of the words, that flow from one scene to the next, as the section heading, which switches the time line. The first time I think it was neat, but it got old quick. Some may like this new way of writing, playing with the novel form. I think it was enough to just portray the situation of refugees without needing to experiment with the novel.


Thanks to Ballantine/Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.