At last, it was my turn for the month's book club choice! Not a book I'd usually read myself but it had been on my shelf for a while and interested me because of the subject matter. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a story about war, loss, grief, family, but most of all it is a story about the trauma of refugees. The story follows a husband and wife, Nuri and Afra respectively, through their fruitful, happy and fulfilled lives in Aleppo, Syria, to the journey they took to escape the danger they faced in their homeland to the struggle of being an asylum seeker in the UK. Christy Lefteri's story is one of the most authentic fictional accounts I've ever seen of the life of refugees.
Throughout the book, we see two different parts of Nuri and Afra's lives that come together into one narrative piece by piece. Every chapter is split into two parts - the present day, in the beginning, showing how their lives are in the UK as they go through the asylum process then moving on to aspects of their past showing who they were. Lefteri transitions between the two timelines in a very interesting way by using the same word to end and begin a narrative stream, often being that a word Nuri thinks of in the present day makes him think of something in his past as the book is from his perspective. By doing this, with each chapter, the reader is informed of who the people are that we are meeting. When an immigration officer meets a refugee, they meet them as they are after they have lost the peace they once had in their lives and the turmoil they have gone through to get to some form of safety and asylum interviews aren't the best way to grasp who the person in front of you is beyond their situation. With the flashbacks to the past, you begin to learn about Nuri's life growing up, his connection and fascination with bees leading him to become a beekeeper, and his marriage to Afra. And with that narrative thread, you find out how things started to change for them in Aleppo and what led to them giving up on the hope that life would return to normal if they stayed in Syria, avoiding leaving for as long as possible.
Stories like this one find their power in the truth and this one is compelling because it draws from the reality that the Syrian Civil War has created in the last decade. The story of Nuri, Afra and all the refugees they come across in their travels feel authentic as Lefteri was aided by her experiences volunteering in the Greek refugee camps in 2016 and 2017. And by including characters that the two main characters come across, she shares more refugee stories with the truth at the heart of it - a former politician who refused to cooperate with extremist groups, a Kurdish man being persecuted for writing "Kurdistan" on a piece of art, children who have been sent away from danger by parents who couldn't find a way to leave. There was so much honesty in this piece that it felt like real life more than a story in a very real setting, there were many times when I questioned whether I was reading fiction or non-fiction. And when it comes down to it, this book is both. Nuri and Afra may be fictional characters but their struggle is not, their trauma is not, there are still Syrian refugees in their position fleeing on boat journeys they may not survive, still fighting for the right to be granted asylum. With the timing, I couldn't help but think of the Syrian refugees in Denmark who were granted asylum years ago, have made a life for themselves and are now being told they have to return to Syria because it is safe enough for them to go. I wouldn't call an ongoing civil war safe enough to return to.
One aspect of Nuri and Afra's relationship is something I feel I do need to address because I know that some people may misunderstand it but it contains spoilers so you'll have to highlight the rest if you want to read it. Some see Nuri as not acknowledging Afra's trauma after Sami's death and her being raped by the smuggler and resenting the way she behaves, his refusal to be near her. The thing is, this is quite an accurate expression of how Middle Eastern couples tend to deal with trauma but not in the negative way most people think. Seeing her son die by a bomb blinded Afra and Nuri would do everything for her for this reason, dressing her every day because he thought she couldn't until he sees one day that she is able to do it on her own - this is something a reader may see as selfish on Afra's part through Nuri's eyes at first until you realise it is her way of keeping an eye (metaphorically speaking) on his trauma. When it comes to loss, it's rare to see Middle Eastern men react, at least not openly, even to their closest family members. It's mentally unhealthy and something that needs to change but that is the fact of it and all he can think to do is make sure his wife is taken care of but Afra does not cry either about the death of her son until she talks to someone else about it because she does not want her husband to feel the burden of her grief when he is not dealing with his own.
After Afra is raped by the smuggler in Greece, things change even more in their relationship but again Afra is more resilient in dealing with the trauma of it than Nuri is. After it happens, she begins to want to be closer to him again, simply to sleep the way they used to with one hand on each other's chest but he moves away from her any time she tries to touch him. Most of the time, the reaction we're familiar with as a Western audience when a sexual assault has occurred, the reactions tend to be the opposite way round for Nuri and Afra. However, in Middle Eastern culture, there is an impossibility to the idea of rape happening. I don't mean there is a denial that it exists but it shakes people to the core possibly more than the death of a child by whatever means. There is a type of disbelief that is indescribable and emotionally destructive, the fact that Nuri can't do anything about him and his wife being disrespected and mistreated in such a way because they need the smuggler breaks him even more. He blames himself for Sami's death and himself for Afra's rape after forgetting the key that protected her. And suddenly it makes sense why he keeps seeing a little boy who isn't there searching for a golden key.
Reasons to Recommend:
- A genuine account of the lives of refugees
- It would help you understand refugees if you don't know of any or are unsure about asking those you do know
- A bittersweet story with heartbreak and hope at the heart of it
- If you like stories that switch between two different timelines
- An honest portrayal of Middle Eastern family dynamics
- Recommended to anyone who liked/loved Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner
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