“After the war, I learned a lesson I would never forget: how a person can disappear inside themselves, and that, sometimes, like my father, they are never able to find their way back.”

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri is a heartbreaking tale exploring the struggles domestic workers have to go through just to provide their families with the basic necessities of life. Reading this book has clearly shown me the stark divide between people who are overflowing with privilege without even being aware of it, just like how a fish doesn't know it's submerged in overflowing ocean water, and people who have to sacrifice their entire youth just to provide their families with things that are default aspects of many people's lives that require little to no sacrifices. Another contrast we see highlighted in this book is the one between disgusting cruelty and selfless kindness, two attitudes human beings are equally capable of, but lean on one more than the other due to their own upbringing.

The story here is centered around Nisha, a Sri Lankan maid who has left her baby daughter Kumari behind after the tragic death of her husband, to go work as a house maid for a woman called Petra in Cyprus, who has coincidentally also lost her husband and has to take care of her own daughter while working. During her stay in Cyprus, Nisha forms a close bond with Petra's daughter, and becomes an inseparable part of the family. She simultaneously builds up a romantic relationship with a Cypriot man named Yiannis, who is involved in an illegal bird hunting project with his childhood close friend, and depends on this arrangement to financially survive. The lives of Petra and Yiannis intertwine when one day, Nisha disappears mysteriously without a trace.

 “Yes, I love thinking about beginnings. I don’t like endings, though I suppose I’m like most people in that. An ending can be staring you right in the face without you knowing it.”

This book alternates between the point of views of Petra and Yiannis, each giving the reader their own subjective experience of Nisha. Through Petra, we see Nisha as the mysterious, exotic maid who takes care of her daughter and deals with tedious household tasks.Through Yiannis, we see Nisha as a passionate and loving woman in her own right, the woman Yiannis so desperately wants to be with.But who is Nisha, really? This question is perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect of this tale, and shows how domestic workers coming from foreign countries are dehumanized as a default.For some, they are servants, for others, they're exotic and mysterious lovers, but we tend to ignore the fact that these women are human beings, with their own souls, their own history and their own ocean of emotions.While trying to figure out what happened to Nisha, we slowly piece together puzzle pieces of her soul, as a human being equal to those who claim to be her masters.


 “You see, we have to eat, and we have to survive, and yet we must protect our dignity and our identity. There are things we do to achieve those things. But we can respect the land and the animals that are on it. Always be kind to the land, the people, and the animals that are on it. Remember that. It’s the most important rule in the world.”

This book is slow and atmospheric, gently pulling the reader into the pleasant nature of Cyprus, sprinkled with birdsong.There is some very good imagery and parallels between the birds and other animals in this story and the struggles of the housemaids the book is portraying. Despite being centered around a disappearance mystery, I find that the book draws its strength not from the clues and the actual revelation of what happened, which I found to be relatively lackluster/mediocre, but by the tidbits we discover about Nisha, and the transition the author makes from painting Nisha as a one-dimensional foreign housemaid to a complex, passionate human being in her own right. This hits home, since this hideous practice foreign housemaids are subjected to is a norm in the country I'm from, Lebanon, which is coincidentally quite close to Cyprus and is mentioned in this book. These maids are treated as subhumans here, with their passports being taken away by their employers, and in most disputes, they are the ones in the wrong, despite being subjected to all sorts of abuse, from physical beatings to sexual assault. We see this same condescending behaviour towards these maids in this book, where the police discard the disappearance of Nisha, and other maids, since they're foreign workers and are not worth their time.

As I mentioned, the mystery and the revelation isn't really the strong suit of this book, and the pace might feel a bit slow, but the strength of this book is how it helps us peer into the souls of these unfortunate domestic workers. While reading this book and uncovering the story of Nisha's life, my heart was touched by the suffering of these housemaids, and the great injustices they are subjected to. This is a heavy read delivered in a gentle manner. Despite the pretty prose and the pleasant island atmosphere of the setting, the topics covered here can weigh heavy on the heart. The emotional impact this book had on me made up for the relative weakness of the mystery plot and its resolution, so I am giving this a 4 stars, and it is a work I will remember, and I definitely do recommend.

Thank you to Maria and Sulla for buddy reading this with me!



 “Now that I could hear this woman’s song—a melody that told a story I couldn’t understand—I hoped with all of my heart that it wasn’t too late.”