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Songbirds
A Literary Fiction Novel by Christy Lefteri
Subgenres:
- Contemporary Fiction,
- Social Issues,
- Immigrant Experience
This book is for you if you're into...
- Stories of migrant workers risking everything for their families
- Disappearances that expose hidden injustices and silent communities
- Women reclaiming their voices in the face of indifference
From Little Stack
Beautifully written, Songbirds explores the world of migrant and transient workers, showing why they leave behind their families and travel thousands of miles to work for people who mistreat and abuse them in a desperate effort to survive.
These are people who are unseen and unheard, but with this story Christy Lefteri gives a voice to the voiceless. It follows Nisha, who left her home to try and give her child a better future and now spends her days caring for Petra’s child. Then one day she vanishes. The authorities refuse to search for her so it’s up to Petra and her secret lover, Yiannis, to try and find her.
Harrowing, heartbreaking and powerful, this story will move you, anger you, and hopefully spark a greater understanding for those whose story it tells.
From the prize-winning author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo comes Songbirds, a stunning novel about the disappearance of a Sri Lankan domestic worker and how the most vulnerable people find their voices.
Living on the island of Cyprus, Nisha is far from her native Sri Lanka. Though she longs to return home, she knows that working as a "maid" for a wealthy widow is the only way to earn enough to support her daughter, left behind to be raised by relatives.
Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe and selling them on the illegal market. He dreams of finding a new way of life, and of marrying Nisha.
But one night, Nisha makes dinner, an aromatic dahl curry, for the family who pays her: Petra and her daughter Aliki. Then, after she cleans the kitchen and tucks Aliki into bed, Nisha goes out on a mysterious errand, and vanishes.
When the police refuse to pursue the case, Petra takes on the investigation herself, a path that leads her to Nisha's friends—other workers in the neighborhood—and to the darker side of a migrant's life, where impossible choices leave them vulnerable, captive, and worse.
Inspired by the real-life disappearance of domestic workers in Cyprus, Christy Lefteri has crafted a poignant, deeply empathetic narrative of the human stories behind the headlines. With infinite tenderness and skill, Songbirds offers a triumphant story of the fight for truth and justice, and of women reclaiming their lost voices.
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