Christy Lefteri : The Beekeeper of Aleppo (Author event #6)

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a novel that follows the journey of a Syrian couple as they face the war and look for ways to seek refuge in countries that don’t want them.

On the 27th of March I had the wonderful opportunity to join in on Samia Aziz’s zoom session with the author of this book, Christy Lefteri. I read the book as soon as it released and have been re-reading it at least twice every year since. The book is filled with heartbreak, loss, hope and tiny amounts of peace in between; the perfect mix for a perfect literary fiction novel.

Christy Lefteri was brought up in London and is the product of two Cypriot refugees. She is currently a lecturer for creative writing. The Beekeeper of Aleppo stemmed from her voluntary work at a UNICEF centre in Athens. Her parents being refugees pushed her to become a volunteer in the first place.

Lefteri mentions that her dad was a commanding officer in the Cyprus war, and her entire family became refugees. She goes on to say that she constantly felt a ‘shadow’ of trauma, loss and displacement in her life because of this. After her mother passed on, her dad moved back to Cyprus. On a trip to visit him, Lefteri sat on the beach one day and looked out over the ocean that Syria is on the other side of. It made her wonder how peaceful it could be on her side of the water, when bombs were being dropped, and lives were being taken at the very moment. The author discussed that after these thoughts, she couldn’t sit and do nothing, and thus decided that she would volunteer at a shelter in Greece; there she worked at a women and children’s shelter in Athens.

While at the centre, Lefteri always felt a sense positivity. There, she met many people, and even though she never asked for their stories, just observing their behaviours was enough to break her heart. She declared that while volunteering, she constantly had a vision in her mind of a man walking into a crumbling home and giving his blind wife a pomegranate. When home, she decided to write out this scene since she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Once on paper, she had the feeling to write more, and so she did.

After her first volunteering period, Christy Lefteri wished to volunteer again the following year. However before this, she decided to meet with an Arabic tutor to assist her in learning the language. This tutor is a Syrian refugee who assisted boys in the UK in seeking asylum. For this reason, she decided to read him her manuscript, in which he then put her into contact with people to interview for the book. Once she went back to Athens to volunteer again, she decided to take her book more seriously and interviewed more people there; both locals and refugees outside of the shelter.

When asked about the characterization in her book, Lefteri mentioned that her characters were made from a combination of people that she had met. She concluded that she met a woman who would draw sketches of her time in Syria, and this inspired her for the character of Afra. For Nuri, she hadn’t met a beekeeper, but she says that there were so many people who had fulfilling lives and one day it was all taken from them; Nuri’s life was inspired from these thoughts. The relationship between Mustafa and Nuri stemmed from a journey that her father had taken to the UK from France to meet his brother; perseverance and hope kept him going. She also mentioned that she had met a man who was a refugee but wanted to reach Denmark in order to attend his brother’s wedding. She declared that the will to survive of these displaced people was a thought that was constantly in her mind.

A scene in the book in which two boys were in the park and their happenings, was discussed as well. The author mentioned that this scene stemmed from a story that she had heard one of the local Greeks mention to her. Since she was shocked with this news, she went on to do thorough research; and the research matched with what the person had narrated. Lefteri didn’t want to display these events in a non-sensitive way, and so decided to subtly mention it to make it known that these incidents are a reality in refugee camps.

The author mentioned that the host had confided in her about her worries of reading a book based on the Syrian war by a non-Syrian. Lefteri replied to this live and said that she lived and witnessed a life of loss and displacement because she was born into it. She also did detailed research on the topic, from reading newspapers to interviewing people involved. However, at the end, a viewer had made a point known. They mentioned that they lived close to Istanbul and knew of the situation with refugees there, however, they couldn’t resonate with the scene of Istanbul in the book. The author then mentioned that the scene in Istanbul was not researched in as much detail as the rest of the scenes.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is an all-round brilliant book that made me cry on several occasions. If you’d like to know more of the Syrian war, I suggest you pick up this book!