This is a poignant and thought-provoking novel which has a distinctive voice. Nisha's story is an emotional one. Living in Cyprus as a maid, she has had to leave her child and mother in Sri Lanka. By day, she mothers Petra's daughter. By night, she speaks to her own daughter on an iPad. As you unravel her story, you find out what has brought her away from home. At first glance, she has little in common with the distant mother, Petra who has never really taken the effort to get to know her. Differences in class and race weave around Nisha and she finds herself trapped within her new life.

The imagery of the songbirds is a powerful one, trapped as they become. In her preface, Christy writes about her inspiration for the story. It is a powerful look at migration and the reasons behind it. Choice does not always come into it. Influenced by a recent tragedy which took place in Cyprus, concerning migrant women workers, the attitude of the authorities to the migrant workers seems lacking. The inability of some to 'see' others as human beings is clearly referenced in the story. A quest for freedom might result in the opposite. This is an emotional read which involves the reader from the start.

In short: Is freedom an illusion?

Beautifully written follow-up to Beekeeper of Aleppo, this stand alone novel has similar themes of displacement, racism and slavery yet came across a little gentler second time around. That said, it still sends a powerful, critical message of humanity, hope and compassion.
Must read.

‘Isn’t it funny,’ Aliki said, in her most adult voice, ‘that you saw everything but yourself ?’

Songbirds is a beautifully written story that gives a voice to the voiceless. Using her exquisite storytelling, Christy Leferti explores the world of migrant and transient workers, showing why they leave their families, including children, behind and travel thousands of miles to work only to be mistreated and abused. They are also encumbered by huge debts owed to those who facilitate their new jobs. They are unseen and unheard, their own lives and stories of no consequence to anyone but themselves and others like them. Nisha is a character we only get to know through others, which reinforces the sense of invisibility that surrounds her and women like her. Petra and Yannis are the ones to narrate and reveal her story, and Petra in particular realises that she knows nothing about Nisha, despite the fact this woman has lived in her home for nine years and cares for her daughter. She also shines a light on the institutionalised racism towards these workers that runs so deep that authorities won’t search for them if they go missing, instead simply assuming they have moved on.

‘What they uncover will change them all.’

There are themes of bondage and captivity woven throughout this story in a variety of ways. As we learn more about the exploitative situations Nisha and other domestic workers often end up in, we see that what they believe to be their escape, is actually a bigger prison than they left behind. Yannis is caught in the web of his black market dealings and unable to escape them, and finally Petra is an emotional captive, frozen stagnant after her husband’s death to the detriment of her relationship with her daughter.

Harrowing, heartbreaking and powerful, this is a story that needed to be told and demands to be read. A story that reminds us you can find beauty and joy in the darkest of places. It will move you, anger you, and hopefully spark a greater understanding and empathy for the people whose stories it tells.

‘Isn’t it funny,’ Aliki said, in her most adult voice, ‘that you saw everything but yourself ?’

Yet again another truly stunning book written by Christy Lefteri.

When Nisha goes missing and police don't think her disappearance is worth investigating, Petra and Yiannis set out to find out the truth.

Throughout the story you follow Petra, not only on a journey to find Nisha, but a discovery of her own ignorance towards Nisha as a person.

Although Nisha never gives any accounts personally, you get to know her story through the eyes of others. What I think hits you the most is the fact we now have what is essentially acceptable slavery, and an ignorance to it that's just tolerated.

Nisha's story is a harrowingly beautiful account one person's ability to find happiness in the little things, always finding beauty where many would find none.

I found this book hard to put down, when one chapter ended I needed to read on. Could not recommend this more. Truly heartbreaking.

Heart breaking and emotional.
This book had me on an emotional roller coaster, a migrant maid goes missing from Cyprus and the police don't care, it takes her employer and a friend to make enquiries and they find out more women have gone missing.
This book could possibly be set anywhere where foreign people need to go to find work (and a life) to survive. This book really makes you think about the reasons so many people have to leave their homes.
Thank you Christy Lefteri for writing such eye opening books.
Thank you NetGalley

Much though I wanted to love this book, I just couldn’t connect with it or the characters. It tells the story of Nisha, a migrant worker who comes to Cyprus from Sri Lanka in order to be able to support her daughter who stays with her grandmother. It’s told from the point of view of her employer, Petra, and her lover, Yiannis, and what they realise they feel for Nisha after she disappears. It’s very well written, as you would expect from this author, focusing on immigration, and the heartbreaking issues this involves, and which is still very much with us today. It shows how at times life is held cheaply, for migrants, but especially for women and children. The fact that the authorities don’t seem to care what happens to them. That said, I expected to feel more emotion about the story but didn’t; in fact at 40 percent on my kindle I wasn’t sure I was going to finish the book. However, the pace and story seemed to pick up after that, and I found myself more engaged. I didn’t find the hare analogy convincing and feel the story could have done without it. The ending was as expected but still fairly powerful to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

If you have read The Beekeeper of Aleppo, you will already know that Christi Lefteri is a consummate storyteller with a passionate interest in migrants and refugees and their stories.

The Beekeeeper was a story about refugees forced to leave their homes as a result of war. Songbirds is also about refugees forced to travel from their homes, but these are economic migrants. Their reasons are just as urgent, but the driver is economic. This is the story of Nisha, a Sri Lankan domestic worker in Cyprus who looks after someone else’s child all day, whilst at night she reaches out to her own child through technology;never able to touch or hug her.

When one day she simply disappears, those few who thought they knew her are left wondering if they knew anything at all.

Songbirds is narrated by Petra, Nisha’s employer in Cyprus and by Yiannis, a man who has come to care deeply for Nisha but whose own economic circumstances have led him into an illegal money making enterprise – trapping delicate songbirds to sell as food on the black market.

Beautifully written, Songbirds lays out some of the reasons people – often women with young children – leave their families, and travel thousands of miles in search of work. This is not a new story – we know it has been happening for years – but what Lefteri does is to let these invisible women be seen and to tell some of their stories.

Nisha has made a huge sacrifice leaving her daughter behind in Sri Lanka and coming to Cyprus for work. Working for Petra and caring for Petra’s daughter, Aliki, in a way her mother cannot, Nisha misses her own daughter, Kumari, more than ever.

Petra is emotionally distanced from everyone. Nisha is a worker, nothing more, but it’s such an inconvenience that she has disappeared. Who will look after her daughter now? As she and Yiannis search for her, it does not take them long to realise that the authorities could not give a toss about Nisha. Such workers are transient, they say. Migrants come and go in their thousands – why would they spend time looking for them when they leave?

Lefteri lays bare the casual institutional racism against such workers; the way in which they are treated as no more than bonded slaves and through Nisha’s story, shows us some of the truly awful traps and exploitative situations that women can be thrown into. Nisha’s job with Petra came through an employment agency. Except that agency, specialising in domestic workers from elsewhere, is in reality nothing more than a way to make money from Nisha while enslaving her to them for years to come.

Lefteri’s Songbirds gives us three people who are each captives in some way. Petra is emotionally frozen after losing her husband. Yiannis is caught in his black market activity and can’t get out. And Nisha has been no more or less than a bonded servant for the last nine years. Though Petra has not been cruel to her, she knows nothing at all about the woman who has lived in her house and cared for her daughter for the last 9 years.

Using the metaphor of beautiful songbirds, Lefteri’s lyrical and delicate prose emotively draws the comparison with Nisha. And even as you feel tremendous revulsion and sorrow for the treatment of these birds, so at the same time you pull yourself up and see the comparison with the inhuman treatment of migrant women. Lefteri has created Nisha’s story based on real disappearances of domestic workers in Cyprus and we should not forget that as we get caught up in her poignant and emotional story.

Verdict: Songbirds will both move and anger you. By leaving Nisha’s own voice until the end of this novel, Lefteri cleverly leaves the most important voice for last. Yet, for all that Songbirds is a story about loss, grief and cruelty, in the end Christy Lefteri has delivered a beautiful book that speaks to hope and how the ties of love and the bonds of friendship can prevail in the face of incredible adversity.

This is so sad, even more so for being based on truth. Once more, the author has given voice to the unheard, in the thousands of women who leave everything behind in order to scrape a living as domestic workers in order to send money home to care for loved ones. How they are taken for granted, taken advantage of, mistreated and abused, because no one stops to think that they actually exist anywhere but in the background. Beautifully written and an important story to tell.

My rating 4.5 stars

The story is set in Cyprus and follows two different perspectives. The first is from Petra, a widowed optician, and the second from Yiannis, who forages for wild herbs and mushrooms by day and at night he is an illegal poacher of Songbirds. Petra and Yiannis live very different lives, but they have one thing in common, and that is Nisha. Nisha moved to Cyprus from Sri Lanka nine years ago to work for Petra as a house maid and to help look after her daughter. While working for Petra, Nisha and Yiannis become close and end up dating. But just as everything is going well Nisha disappears and no one knows where she has gone. But both Petra and Yiannis are determined to find out what has happened to her.

Now, having loved The Beekeeper of Aleppo I couldn’t wait to get stuck into this one. But when I first started this Songbirds I honestly wasn’t too sure about it. I found it to be slow and was almost pushed to the edge of boredom, but as I really wanted to find out what had happened to Nisha I persevered and it was definitely worth it. At about halfway there was a shift in the pace and I really got invested in the storyline and raced through the second half.

Songbirds is very different to The Beekeeper of Aleppo, it’s not as dark, but still very powerful and haunting read at times. This is definitely a book that I will think about for a long time to come. Even after the slow start, this turned out to be a great read and would definitely recommend picking it up!!

Songbirds is the second book from Christy Lefteri following on from The Beekeeper of Aleppo which was published last year. Honestly this was a far better book and the fact that I read it one sitting really affirms that. The author was influenced by a tragedy in Cyprus where five migrant women and two children went missing and the authorities did nothing to investigate. They assumed they had simply moved on. The author brilliantly highlighted the difficulties and suffering that migrants and domestic workers experience all over the world. Many of the women search for freedom but find themselves trapped exchanging one cage for another. This story demonstrates the strength, resilience and sacrifices that these people go through. It’s a story about migration and crossing boarders and is wonderfully portrayed in comparison to the migration of the songbirds which Yiannis hunts as they make their journey to Africa. Christy Lefteri highlights to the reader that systematic racism exists but that we must learn to see each and every human being in the same way as we see ourselves and that is one very important point to take from this book.

The story is set in Cyprus and at times I even forgot it was set there as really this could have been anywhere where migrants are forced to work as domestic workers. The themes are universal and it was as if the author was speaking for each person that has suffered when they thought they had found freedom and a new life. Yiannis has left his former high powered life behind and now lives on the top floor of a house in a quiet neighbourhood. Petra and her daughter Aliki live on the bottom floor with their maid/nanny Nisha. Yiannis catches songbirds during their migration from Europe and this was very well detailed. The analogy of the songbirds provided lots of food for thought for the reader. You can see that Yannis struggles with this illegal hunting as many believe him to be just a forager in the woods. But Yiannis is bound up and tied to a chain that he can’t break free from and Nisha when she discovers this realises he is not the man she believed him to be.

A relationship has slowly developed over time between Nisha and Yiannis but it’s a secret as Nisha goes to his apartment in the dead of night. We don’t get chapters from Nisha’s perspective but it’s testament to the brilliant writing of the author that I felt I came to knew her so well. She was given a voice through the other characters and her various layers are pulled back the more the story develops. We come to learn that Nisha came from Sri Lanka and why she did so. She stepped into Petra’s world when she needed her the most although Petra does not realise this until one night Nisha disappears leaving all her belongings behind and no clues as to where she went or why. Nisha leaves behind a void and an emptiness in both Petra and Yiannis. The hurt that Yiannis feels radiates from the pages. How can Nisha have left them especially as you discover the road they have recently navigated? Yiannis was a complex character who knew he was in too deep and was devastated when Nisha disappeared. I did come to feel and appreciate the connection between the pair but it was Petra and Nisha I found myself gravitating towards more.

If Nisha had not gone missing would Petra have continued to take her for granted as she was always just there doing everything that was expected of her and much more? It made Petra realise that she never really knew Nisha, that she was the one raising her child and Aliki had formed such a bond with her that was impossible to break. Aliki was like a substitute daughter for Nisha in place of Kumari whom she was forced to leave behind in Sri Lanka. Aliki never gives up and refuses to believe that Nisha just left after all those years with them. Petra is forced to wake from the almost slumber like existence she has being going around in for years and you admire her for this. For when push comes to shove, she will not rest until she finds Nisha and the journey she takes is an enlightening but difficult one to navigate.

Petra becomes exposed to so much that she never knew existed around her neighbourhood and the island at large. It became a turning point for her, in that she was forced to connect with her daughter, to truly understand how she lived and thought and that she was a special person and that Nisha was the one who had always seen this. It’s only when Nisha disappears then that is when she is truly valued and respected for all that she does. She is no longer a shadow always lingering in the background with no voice yet always ready to step in and help when needed. It shows how migrants despite the situation they find themselves in and their reasons for coming to a new country that they are people that deserve appreciation and a chance to do well and make a new life for themselves. As opposed to being treated like a slave or a second class citizen. Not that Petra did this but I don’t think she truly understood how good she had things until Nisha disappeared. Petra, as she seeks answers, will soon come to understand that she owes Nisha more than she can ever truly repay her.

Songbirds was not as dark a read as The Beekeeper of Aleppo. Yes, the subject matter is a serious one and growing ever more prevalent and relevant in our society and this is conveyed in a powerful way. The seriousness and intensity of the themes being explored are not to be underestimated but I found it comes across in a much more accessible way for the reader. I thought the story didn’t ramble on and go off on meaningless tangents as I found the first book had. The meaning was clear to understand and the message was coming across loud and clear. I didn’t find myself struggling to read between the lines in order to decipher the hidden meaning which I find usually slows down the pace of a book. If I am trying to comprehend what is being said and having to reread sentences on numerous occasions that it detracts from my enjoyment of the story and disrupts the pace. Thankfully, here this was not the case.

I felt the author was even more confident in her writing and was able to convey the themes and messages that she wished to without me ever feeling like I was wading through each page. Songbirds was a real human emotional story but at the same time it read a bit like a crime thriller without too much intensity in that direction. Overall, the flow of Songbirds was very good, the descriptions of Cyprus and the specific area where the main characters lived were excellent and I soon became deeply invested in the characters and the eventual outcome for all involved. I desperately wanted to know what had happened.

Songbirds is a powerful read without it feeling like you are being preached to. A well balanced overview is provided leaving the reader free to form their own opinions and for me those quickly emerged one specific side. I would definitely recommended that you read this book. It teaches some important life lessons and your understanding and empathy of the situation with regard to the many migrants all over the world increases and your respect deepens.

A few months ago when I saw that Christy Lefteri was writing a new book, I immediately added it to my TBR. Although this is vastly different to The Beekeeper of Aleppo, it’s such a small yet important story covering the issues around human migration. The story of Nisha’s disappearance is told from the perspective of her lover, Yiannis, and her employer, Petra, and is based on the real life disappearance of domestic workers in Cyprus. I appreciated the story being from Yiannis and Petra POV rather than Nisha, as it painted her as a caring and hardworking person, and read like someone telling you a story about a well loved friend/family member. Unravelling the story of Nisha had an element of crime/thriller, whilst simultaneously being a beautiful piece of literature. It was a slow burner, but one that absolutely paid off. By the end of the book I was so glad for the speed it unfolded and as a result is such a harder gut punch conclusion, even if it did feel a little rushed in the last 30 or so pages. It drives home the themes of motherhood and being human, and despite being incredibly sad, it’s a beautifully written book full of hope.

I loved The Beekeeper Of Aleppo so I had high hopes for the author's second novel and it didn't disappoint. Lefteri has such an amazing way with words and I was mesmerised by her use of language.

But Lefteri also writes a compelling story. I was really touched by Nisha's story and I was fascinated to learn more about the way the maids were treated. There are parts of her story that are difficult to read as Lefteri examines some sensitive subjects, although she writes in an emotive way that makes the reader think more deeply about the issues she raises. I was fully engaged in this novel from start to finish and I really wanted to know what had happened to Nisha.

Each chapter is written from the perspective of a different character and this gives the reader the opportunity to get to know them. Each character is really well developed and I appreciated spending time with them.

Songbirds also looks at the issue of poaching. This is a subject I know very little about and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more and understand the impact of this practice upon both the birds and those involved in it. The songbirds are also a metaphor for the women in this novel and the parallels between them also gave me a great deal to think about.

I have taken a long time trying to put my feelings about Songbirds by Christy Lefteri into words.
This is so much more than just a well told story, with exquisite location settings and incredible characters. This is a testament to modern day struggles, a call to open our eyes to what is really happening around us, to the conditions we quietly accept fellow humans to live in and through.

Petra is a typical working mother living in Cyprus. Having lost her husband before her daughter was born, she did as many in Cyprus do: she hires Nisha to help her raise her child and look after the household. Petra does not really spend much time thinking about Nisha, wondering how her service to her family impacts Nisha's own family. Only when Nisha goes missing, does Petra take notice! She learns, that Nisha has a whole other life, and is much loved by her lodger, Yiannis.

I was not aware of the issues that were described in this book, so i educated myself. This book will stay with me for a very long time, the plight, migrant workers all over the world, and especially in the western world, face are a wake up call to us all.
Anybody who reads this book will not only be blown away by the beautiful way Christy Lefteri weaves the story, but also be touched and deeply moved by the issues discussed.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Christy Lefteri for an ARC of this book. This review is my own and reflects my thoughts and feelings.

What a beautifully written book.
I was so moved as I read about the disappearance of Nisha, who leaves Sri Lanka to become a domestic worker in Cyprus in order to support her family back home.
The story is told by Petra, her employer and Yiannis, her boyfriend.
We learn about her past and the events that shaped her life as they search for her.
Christy Lefteri explores the plight of immigration workers and how they are exploited by others as they search for a better life.
Her description of the landscape and the songbirds, who Yiannis illegally poaches is so vivid and I’m so grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Last year I listened to the audiobook of Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo, narrated by the amazing Art Malik, and fell in love with Christy Lefter’s writing, so I jumped at the chance to read her new book. Songbirds, like her previous novel, looks at migrants, but in a different way. Nisha came to Cyprus from Sri Lanka to work as a maid in order to support her mother and daughter after the death of her husband in Sri Lanka. Petra is Nisha’s employer, she hires Nisha to look after the house and her own daughter Aliki, who she raises from birth. Yannis is Nisha’s lover, he dreams of marrying her and helping her family in Sri Lanka. But one night Nisha just disappears, leaving all she loves behind, but no one cares about a missing migrant worker, so Petra and Yannis start their own investigation which opens their eyes to the. plight of these domestic workers. Inspired by events is Cyprus this is an intriguing and emotional read.

The first thing that comes to mind in reading and reviewing this book is just how beautiful Christy Lefteri’s writing is. She has a style that is poetic, detailed, enthralling and detailed. I was almost hypnotised by her writing, she manages to paint a picture in full technicolour with her words both in the physical landscape of the book and also in her characters. When I think about Cyprus, I think of the sun, the beaches and it’s classical history. Christy Lefteri shows another side, the forests, the poaching of beautiful songbirds for sale on the black market, and the systematic use of migrant workers, many of whom are mistreated.

Nisha’s story is one that represents the plight of many migrant workers around the world. Widowed and with little income she joins an agency to get work in Cyprus to help her mother and young daughter, who is two years older that Aliki. Nisha is more of a mother to Aliki than Petra, looking after from birth, taking her to and from school, doing homework with her and putting her to bed, all things she could be doing with her own daughter if circumstances were different. It is through Nisha’s story that the shocking reality of the lives of migrant workers are revealed. These women work long hours six or seven days a week with no holidays. Many are mentally, physically and sexually abused but the police do nothing as they are not bothered about the plight of these women. At first glance Petra and Nisha seem worlds apart. Petra has a good job, a stable life and a good income, but there are many similarities in their situation. Both women are widowed, Petra just before Aliki’s birth, both come from war torn and colonised countries, and both are distanced from their daughters: Nisha geographically and Petra emotionally. Petra and Yannis, Nisha’s lover realise hey have to find out where she has gone as the police aren’t interested. During the investigation they both learn a lot about Nisha, who she really was and Petra realises how little she knows about this woman who has lived with her for nine years. Yannis, Nisha’s lover is a complex character and one I didn’t like much at first, due to his illegal poaching of songbirds. However, he did redeem himself as the plot progresses as I understood that he was caught up in an agreement he couldn’t get out off. I thought the metaphor of the songbirds, trapped and unable to escape, was a brilliant and emotional mirror to the plight of the female migrants. Christy Lefteri draws you in to the life of these characters, her indepth portrayal exposes the flaws of these characters, the mistakes of the past and their determination in their investigation.

Songbirds is a beautiful and haunting read that I will remember for a long time. Christy Lefteri’s writing is simply stunning, the prose is lyrical and this has to be one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. Like in her previous book The Beekeeper of Aleppo, the important subject of immigration is at the books centre, and Christy Lefteri shines a light on the reality of the migrants, the terrible working conditions that break their human rights, they are invisible and no one cares about them and they can’t even have relationships whilst working. This book is a stunning, sublime and in parts shocking, and can’t recommend it highly enough.

I was grabbed immediately by the blurb on this book. I wasn’t disappointed. Beautifully written and hard hitting. Will look for more of this author’s books

I loved this book! The writing was so lovely, so vivid and descriptive. The characters so well written and thought out, the kids were charming. It's not the most pleasant of storylines but it's not graphic so it doesn't turn into a difficult read. I haven't read The Beekeeper of Aleppo but maybe I should...I thoroughly recommend this!

Review
Songbirds by Christy Lefteri

The book is speaking about a Sri Lankan immigrant girl, who left her country in order to provide for her family back home and make her daughter's future bright. She is living in Cyprus while being a maid for almost 10 years for a single mom
Until one day, she dissapears without a trace, without anybody knowing anything about her, leaving all her things behind

What we will embark on is a journey of courage, fights for truth and justice when no one around is supporting you, providing for yourself, women reclaiming their lost voices, and searching for happy memories in the past
While Yiannis (her boyfriend) and Petra (the single mom) are starting to worry and search for her, the police are showing no signs of interest as they thought Nisha is another runaway domestic worker. This only proves how immigrants are treated in other countries and the police's amplifying inefficiency

She starts searching on her own, evidences, being in touch with Nisha's closest friends, asking around and going through her stuff, as apparently after 10 years she knows nothing about Nisha, which is only making me realise how selfish and priviledged sometimes we think we are so that life could go on around us without even realising that our presence is the key factor to our dear ones

Beside losing her trusted maid, Petra is dealing with another huge issue she hasn't seen it coming: Motherhood
Since the dissapearance, Petra's daughter is nothing like she used to be around Nisha, breaking the spell and making Petra realise that she had not a single contribution to her daughter's education and emotional support

As I was reading, I was contemplating about Petra's and Nisha's similarities in a world where social status is the only thing separating us and how this book is important for just a simple thing: it is based on true facts! Reading this side of the story, is only making you realise the issue of human migration seeing through the priviledged side of the story

To be fair, I absolutely enjoyed the author's style of explaining in simple words such an important issue going on in this world, speaking from all sides of the story about an immigrant dissapearance

But this is not the only thing you get when reading this book!
You will be transported to the magnificent island of Cyprus with its glowing trees and migrating birds, as you will see Yiannis's side of the story and how Nisha played an important part into both his and Petra's lives

TW: racism, child loss, animal cruelty, dissapearance,

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Many thanks to Netgallry and the publisher for providing me this ebook ARC in exchange of an honest opinion

This wonderful, poignant and absorbing story is set in Cyprus near the partition that was meant to settle the wars of ownership of Cyprus between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. Sadly there are still tensions, despite the partitioning being around 50 years ago. This is the setting where Sri Lankan Nisha found a home as a maid and Nanny-to-be. Nisha’s husband had passed away with real plans for their firstborn and she dearly wanted to honour her husband’s wishes. She needed to meet all the bills for her daughter Kumari and her mother, so her meagre wages were sent back to her native home. She left her two year old daughter in the care of her grandmother but was in regular contact with her family using an iPad to exchange their news.
Nisha found herself billeted by her work agency in Petra’s home in the Greek zone. Petra was also a widow and needed help so that she could go back to her Optician business after her baby was born. Soon Nisha had lived happily in the Greek Cypriot quarter for nine years when one night she disappeared. None of the neighbours or their maids could believe Nisha would desert Petra and so they waited for her return.
Petra’s daughter Aliki loved Nisha dearly. She was so upset when her nanny disappeared. Petra knew very little about Nisha, but she liked her hard working and joyous maid. She was sure Nisha would return but when she didn’t she reported her maid missing. The police officers refused to help, claiming maids just ran away on a whim. So it was left to Petra to run her own investigations amongst her neighbourhood.
Petra’s tenant upstairs Yiannis was also worried about Nisha. The night she went missing he had proposed to her. Immigrant maids were not allowed to have relationships. Their owners forbade it. But they had courted and had fallen in love. Yiannis came downstairs to enquire about Nisha. He was also very worried about her. He offered to help Petra with her investigations. He kept their romance secret because he didn’t want Nisha to be sacked when she came back to her home. Yiannis kept another secret from Petra. His main source of income was moonlighting by illegally trapping migrant songbirds in mist nets on their migration from Africa to Europe. They were frozen and delivered to the taverna with no questions asked. He was not a bad man but had been tempted by the offer of a job helping a lifelong friend after he was made redundant. This was not a job you could quit. One man had his home burnt out when he wanted to leave the job. As soon as Nisha found out about his work she begged him to stop. He would do anything for Nisha, he was gentle and kind. This is Nisha’s sensitive and alluring story, told with empathy and understanding.
Nisha’s story is based on real life events. Effectively she was sold into slavery with no chance to pay back her debts to her work agency. I loved the two parallel stories of Nisha and Yiannis, and also of Nisha and the Songbirds. The storytelling is superb, the imagery bringing the story to life. The author also crafted her characters to twine together their pasts with their presents thereby inviting the reader into their world. I was totally absorbed in this story of a fight for justice and the truth of what happened to Nisha. I hated the attitude of the Cypriot Police. Nisha was not trash and deserved to be treated with humanity and kindness, not with prejudices and discrimination. Although this story is very sad, parts of it were uplifting. Nisha made a journal for her daughter to delight in. She made sacrifices and hard decisions so that she could ensure her own mother and her daughter could manage to support themselves with her help. It was ironic that her placement was with an expectant mother who gave birth to a daughter. She treated Petra’s daughter as her own child, feeding her, chaperoning her to school, playing with her, telling her stories, yet she could not do the same for her own daughter back in Sri Lanka.
I received a complimentary copy of this riveting novel from publisher Manilla Press through my membership of NetGalley and I would like to thank them for my copy, sent out to me in return for an honest review. I will never forget this story. I loved every bit of it. I recommend it as an unmissable 5* read, a real page turner and a Gem of a story. It is both thought provoking and heart breaking.

Wow. I think I'm still recovering. This book alternated between breathtaking beauty and horrible, painful metaphorical punches in the gut.

The characterisation is amongst the best I have read in a considerable while. The story is told in alternating viewpoints - as seems to be the case in the majority of recent novels - but in this case it clearly contributes to the book's power: I felt as though I was living through the pain, grief, anxiety and love experienced by Nisha, Yiannnis, Petra and their families.

The plot is well-paced and engaging, and I interrupted my reading only reluctantly when commitments called.

The portrayal of the appalling treatment of foreign domestic workers was all the more poignant because deep down we know it is their reality - indeed perhaps just the tip of the iceberg.

I suspect this book will stay with me for a long time, and I highly recommend it.