SONGBIRDS

The follow-up to the global bestseller The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Songbirds is a heart-breaking story for our times. She walks unseen through our w orld. Cares for our children, cleans our homes. Her voice unheard. She has a story to tell. Will you listen? Nisha has crossed oceans to give her child a future. By day she cares for Petra's daughter, Aliki; at night she mothers her own in Sri Lanka by the light of a phone. Nisha's lover is Yiannis, a poacher, who hunts the tiny songbirds as they migrate to Cyprus on their way to Africa each winter. He dreams of finding a new way of life, of marrying Nisha. When Nisha disappears, little Aliki insists she wouldn't simply run aw ay; they must find her. As Petra learns to take care of Aliki herself, she comes to understand the woman she barely knew , and realises only she and Yiannis will bother to look for her. What they uncover will change them all. Set on her native Cyprus, Christy Lefteri has crafted a powerful, redemptive story of loss, of the triumph of the human spirit, and of the enduring love of a mother for her child.