The Beekeeper of Aleppo--Syrian Refugees Surmount Trauma

I've been in an escapist mood, so I didn't know if I could deal with anything quite so heavy as The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri. It was selected by a Goodreads group for discussion this month, but I thought it might be too grim to read during a pandemic.  I had requested it from the library before Covid-19 became a factor in the United States.  I had been wanting to read it for some time and I now had the time to do that.  I figured I'd try it out. If it was too depressing, I could always set it aside.  Well readers, I finished it and am now anxious to review this book.

                             

In this era where Own Voice novels are socially significant,  I have become much more conscious of whether it's appropriate for an author to utilize particular types of viewpoint characters which would require sensitivity.  Christy Lefteri's Author's Note didn't put my concerns to rest when she mentioned her Cypriot parents' refugee past, but reading online about the atrocities that were committed against Greek Cypriots during the Turkish invasion in 1974 made me realize that her background could qualify Lefteri as much as her reliance on a Syrian refugee beta reader.  I was also impressed that she volunteered at a refugee center in Athens.   I could see that the combination of her experience with refugees, and dealing with her Greek Cypriot father's PTSD made her feel impelled to write this book.

The last time I'd read a book about Syrian refugees, it was No Right Way, a thriller by Michael Niemann  which I reviewed here.  No Right Way was an investigation taking place in Turkey, but The Beekeeper of Aleppo follows the entire journey of its refugee protagonists from Syria to the country where they eventually find a home.  Terrible things happen to them on their long road, but I kept on holding on to the hope that they would have a future.

It was engagement with the characters that kept me reading.  Nuri Ibrahim is the narrator and the titular beekeeper.  I was drawn to this book by that title.  I wanted to know the story of this protagonist.  I hadn't thought of Syria as a place where there are beekeepers.  Bees need flowers to produce honey, and I'd always imagined Syria as a desert country without flowers.  Well, I was wrong.  As portrayed in this novel, the geography of Syria is more diverse than I expected.  There have actually been beekeepers in Syria.  Christy Lefteri mentions encountering  Dr. Ryad Alsous, a Syrian refugee who was a beekeeper there.  Alsous inspired Lefteri to create Nuri.  I also found an article about a real Syrian beekeeper named Adnan Al-Outani here.

As someone who is interested in environmental issues, I've learned about the importance of bees in maintaining our supply of so many crops.  Now bees are a threatened species in the U.S.   Americans took them for granted and we may well lose them.  It seems to me that any refugee with beekeeping skills should be welcome anywhere.  That's an important reason why I had faith in Nuri.

For much of this novel, I didn't have the same faith in Nuri's artist wife,  Afra.   I wanted to believe in her, but her perspective wasn't provided. I felt that without a direct tie in to her subjectivity, I would never understand Afra.  I love reading about woman artists, but she was clearly very damaged by events that had happened in Syria and during their travels since.  Toward the end of the narrative, she has a breakthrough which allowed me to have hope for her recovery. 

Nuri had also been  emotionally wounded by what he had gone through, but he was holding on so hard to his composure for Afra's sake, that we don't really see how injured his psyche was until extremely late in the novel.

I found the resolution of The Beekeeper of Aleppo very moving.  It was what I had wanted for Nuri.  The new life that I had envisioned for him seemed on the verge of  becoming a reality.  I also thought that Afra would be able to fully reclaim herself in that supportive context.  This book shows how refugees can re-integrate themselves successfully and contribute to their new home countries as they have in previous generations.