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Songbirds
- Narrated by: Indira Varma, George Georgiou, Art Malik, Lolita Chakrabarti
- Length: 10 hrs
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Songbirds
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Publisher's Summary
Her courage to cross oceans.
Her hope for a better life.
Her love for a daughter, above all else.
Not all tragedies make headlines, not every voice is heard.
Nisha has crossed oceans to give her child a future. Now she spends her days caring for someone else's daughter while her own waits for her return, half a world away.
For Petra, it is only natural to hire a domestic worker to keep her house clean and her family fed. Their lives have nothing in common, except the love they feel for their daughters.
Then one day, Nisha vanishes. No one cares about the disappearance of a foreign domestic worker, except Petra and Nisha's secret lover, Yiannis, the only connection to her daughter back in Sri Lanka.
As Petra and Yiannis desperately search for Nisha, they realise how little they knew about her. What they uncover will change them both forever.
Inspired by true stories of love and loss, hope and refuge, this evocative masterpiece from the million-copy best-selling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri, is an illuminating story of the power of the human spirit, and the enduring love of a mother for her child, that will stay with you long after you finish listening.
Critic Reviews
"Will break your heart and open your eyes." (Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz)
"I've never read anything quite like Songbirds—a beautifully crafted novel." (Jodi Picoult, best-selling author of Wish You Were Here)
"This thought-provoking novel of love loss and redemption is thoroughly sublime." (Caroline Montague)
"...broke my heart and kept me turning the pages of her gorgeous novel well into the night." (Alka Joshi, NYT best-selling author of The Henna Artist and The Secret Keeper of Jaipur)
"Christy Lefteri has crafted a beautiful novel, intelligent, thoughtful, and relevant." (Benjamin Zephaniah on The Beekeeper of Aleppo)
"...it's impossible not to be moved by Lefteri's plea for humanity and perhaps inspired too." (Observer, on The Beekeeper of Aleppo)
"Courageous, proactive, haunting." (Heather Morris, on The Beekeeper of Aleppo)
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What listeners say about Songbirds
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Karla
- 21-12-2021
Reading this beautifully presented story makes one want to cry for humanity
I cried for the songbirds, and a practice I’m sure still is still rife. A dad account of some aspects of human nature coupled with some hope for the future. A great read with beautiful phrasing
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 27-05-2022
can't get enough, I am spellbound
I am Petra, learning so much about a world I didn't know existed. Wow what a story. Beautifully written and well told by the narrators. My only disappointment is that I have now completed all of Christy Lefteri's works. Each one has revealed so much to me, thank you
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kirsten Crombie
- 19-10-2023
Just beautiful
A tragic story but written with such exquisite beauty and delicacy. So rich in its layers, metaphors, and detail, and with engaging, complex characters, I devoured it in a weekend.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jo
- 11-11-2022
A fascinating book, beautifully executed
I bought this audio book a long time before I read it and I must admit that I had forgotten the premise of the story. It was a pleasant surprise when I started it to find that it wasn’t the story I had been expecting at all. What I liked is that underneath the story of the missing maid is an another story that all too often goes untold of the plight of domestic workers who are an invisible part of modern-day slavery. In Songbirds you see that they are subject to prejudice and ignorance from their employers, most are treated with indifference (as though they are somehow sub-human) and some are treated with actual cruelty. This book shines a light on the mistreatment but also very successfully draws out the human stories that lead these women to give up their families and their homes and everything they have ever known to travel across the world to cook, clean and skivvy for wealthy people. This is a really good story and I love the educative elements, subtly delivered but successfully opening up my eyes to something I knew a little about but had no real frame of reference to understand.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 18-01-2022
Wholesome and Heartbreaking!
Read this after Lefteri's 'Beekeeper of Aleppo' and I am in love with her writing! Definitely one of the best books I've ever read!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- LINDA
- 03-02-2024
really well executed story
Slowly drawn in to understanding anothers world. three other worlds. A reminder to not take prejudices at face value and to deeply engage with all those in our lives.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kirsty
- 13-02-2024
Moving and eye opening
I loved this book not only for its depth of characters and being so well written but for its revealing and relatable truth about people in our life’s that are not truly known, seen or appreciated. Haunting and human it’s so very worth the read and personal reflection that comes with it.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- salc02
- 29-02-2024
Insightful, powerful novel, beautifully narrated.
So many parallel stories of freedom and loss. the metaphor of the illegally hunted and trapped beautiful songbirds was pervasive throughout all levels of the storyline and the characters. Moving, challenging and cleverly crafted. Christy Lefteri is a masterful writer.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marlene
- 21-03-2024
I Didn't Want the Story to End
The story, the narration, the whole package drew me in. Christy is a wonderful writer, having also written The Beekeepers of Aleppo, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Wendy
- 08-10-2023
Excellent story and narration!
I loved “The Beekeeper of
Aleppo” and when I saw that the author had written another book, I was keen to read it. What a fantastic story! Beautifully written and narrated. What I love about both books is that they also have a deeper meaning and are very powerful. I hope Christy writes many more books because she is extremely talented.
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