Songbirds
Page 27
Thank you especially to my dad and Yiota for always being there for me, encouraging me never to give up and for all your love and help. Thank you to my mum, though you are no longer with us – thank you for the love you gave me, the belief you had in me and for how funny and creative you were. I have those things with me, every step I take.
Every time I write a novel, I learn so much, and I’d really like to thank everybody who helped me to know, to understand, and to see things in a new way.
Dear Reader,
Around ten years ago, I became friends with a domestic worker in Cyprus who worked for a close family member. Menaka was from Sri Lanka and had not seen her two daughters for eight years. She used to speak to them on her tablet; she was a mother to them through a screen. She introduced me to her daughters, she showed me her house and the streets of her hometown through the iPad. On screen, she showed me the trees, the flowers, the sky, the food – she wanted me to know what home meant to her, what it smelled like and tasted like and how it felt. We went on virtual walks together through the town with her daughters and mother-in-law. Sometimes, like any parent, she would need to tell her daughters off, or remind them to do their homework; often she told them she loved them – always through a screen. She told me the story of how she was widowed when her husband, the love of her life, died in a farming accident. Subsequently, she had to make the difficult decision to work abroad as a domestic worker, in order to provide for her children. Since then, she has not been able to be present for her daughters as they grow up. She sends them clothes and money, but she cannot be there with them, as they grow into young adults. I could see the strength, resilience and immense love that Menaka had within her, but I also came to see the immense suffering of her sacrifice. In the meantime, I could see how the other women, in all the households along that street, went about their duties, often unseen and misunderstood. ‘Ah,’ one of the neighbours said to me once, ‘these women don’t care about their families, they drift around the world.’
While I was on tour for The Beekeeper of Aleppo, I was often asked: ‘How can we get people to understand that refugees are not like migrants, that they have come because they do not have a choice?’ This question saddened me. Migrants are often forced to leave their homes for less obvious reasons than war – but they still leave because they feel that they have no choice.
Songbirds was influenced both by this question and by a recent tragedy in Cyprus, in which five migrant women domestic workers and two of their children disappeared. When the women were reported missing, the authorities did not investigate their disappearance or search for them, because they were foreign – it was assumed that they had simply moved on. Later, however, it was discovered that the women and children had been murdered. In reality, almost two years had passed before a couple of tourists discovered the first victim in an abandoned mine shaft after a heavy rainfall. This was a woman who had been reported missing and whose disappearance had been completely dismissed.
I followed the events as they unfolded. With a broken heart, I read newspapers and watched the Cypriot news, spoke to friends. But I was not surprised at all that nobody had searched for these women and their children. I was not surprised that an investigation had not been launched, that the police had dismissed them as runaways. I felt anger, such anger, because over the years I had witnessed the reality of what had led to such gross negligence.
Most of my family live in Cyprus. I was born in the UK because my parents came as refugees after the war in 1974. Most of the middle-class families in Cyprus – just as they do all over the world – hire domestic workers. In Cyprus, you do not have to be rich to have a domestic worker, just reasonably comfortable. So, the presence of these women, who run the households, look after children, walk the dogs, clean the restaurants/shops or whatever other businesses or properties their employers might own, is commonplace. Migrant domestic workers are a part of the fabric of Cypriot life.
This story is not an attempt to represent the voices of migrant workers or to speak for them, it is an exploration of the ideologies, prejudices, circumstances and underlying belief systems that can lead to very sad and often catastrophic events. It is an exploration of the way in which a flawed system can trap people. It is also a story about all forms of entrapment – the way we can all trap ourselves into certain ways of seeing and being.
And so, the idea of Songbirds began to grow.
I decided to visit Cyprus, to speak to as many women as I could, so that I could understand things more deeply. I went to visit a man who is the head of a human rights organisation aimed at caring for domestic workers; he also owned a café where the men and women would meet on Sundays. It was he who family members and employers had turned to when the police would not investigate the disappearances of these women and children. At one point, he admitted, he was the only person in Cyprus looking for what he believed to be a murderer – he turned out to be right.
I became very moved by the stories I heard. He arranged for me to speak to many of the domestic workers who came into his café on Sundays. The stories I heard opened my eyes to the difficulties and suffering that migrant domestic workers experience. When I returned to the UK, I contacted Justice for Domestic Workers, and helped to edit some stories written by the women who visit the centre. I wanted to learn more about the problems and hardships that domestic workers face around the world, because I felt that the failure of the authorities in this particular situation was not an isolated incident, it was a result of our deeply flawed society and civilisation.
It became clear to me that although some of the women were leaving their countries in order to be able to earn more and support family members, others were searching for their freedom. Many of these women ended up finding themselves more trapped than they had been before, with no way of returning home.
I had learnt so much just by listening and opening my eyes; I understood so much more than I had before. This is why I wanted to write a story from the perspective of the people who had to learn about Nisha themselves – her employer and her lover. I struggled to write the ending. I found it so hard because I knew that Nisha had to die. She had to die because the women in reality had lost their lives, so cruelly snatched away. Although my novel isn’t based on the true story, it is inspired by the essence of it, by the way in which ideologies exist like powerful undercurrents. We hear Nisha’s story through the mouths of others; we have to piece together her existence through the memories of others – this is what I often saw and felt on the streets of Cyprus. But when we listen and look carefully, we see that each person has as much beauty and depth and hope and fear and history and aspiration and courage as we do ourselves. The reader must discover this. Until the end, when Nisha finally speaks. I hope there is an echo after the last page – her voice continuing out into the silence of the ending.
Songbirds is a story about migration and crossing borders: it is about searching for freedom, for a better life, only to find oneself trapped. It is a story about the way in which systemic racism exists often unquestioned, relying upon prejudice and nationalistic ideals to survive. It is a story about learning to see each and every human being in the same way as we see ourselves.
Christy Lefteri
Reading Group Questions
1. How does Songbirds explore the theme of motherhood?
2. What does this novel tell us about the lives of female migrant workers?
3. How do racism and classism operate within the world of the novel?
4. Both Petra and Yiannis are complex characters. Did you like them? How did that change as you read the book?
5. What did you make of Seraphim as a character?
6. What role do animals play in this novel? What do you think the songbirds and the mouflon ovis represent?
7. What do you think Nisha really felt for Yiannis?
8. What role do you see Aliki playing in the novel – is she key to helping Petra come to realise she has to find out what has happened to Nish
a?
9. Why do you think Petra struggles to connect with her daughter?
10. We never hear Nisha’s voice until the end, but we see her through the other characters’ eyes. What did you make of Nisha, and how did your image of her develop across the novel?
11. At the end of the book, Yiannis is going to find Kumari and her grandmother, and give them Nisha’s journal and the money he has made. Do you see hope for their future, despite the fact that they have lost Nisha?
12. If you’ve read the author’s letter, how did it affect your understanding of the novel?
If you would like to be more involved, please see the below information about two charities in the UK and in Cyprus.
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Protection of the Natural Heritage and the Biodiversity of Cyprus is a non-governmental organisation that seeks to preserve and promote the rich biodiversity of the island. For more information, please contact fanigeorge@hotmail.com or visit the Facebook page to see beautiful wildlife photographs taken by George.
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The Voice of Domestic Workers, based in Holborn, London, is an education and support group calling for justice and rights for Britain’s sixteen thousand migrant domestic workers.
Learn more about their work at:
www.thevoiceofdomesticworkers.com
If you loved Songbirds, you’ll also enjoy Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo
First published in the UK in 2021 by Manilla Press
This ebook edition published in 2021 by
MANILLA PRESS
An imprint of Bonnier Books UK
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Copyright © Christy Lefteri, 2021
Interior illustrations © Sally Taylor
Cover design by Nick Stearn
The moral right of Christy Lefteri to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-78658-083-2
Hardback ISBN: 978–1–83877–376–2
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This ebook was created by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd
Manilla Press is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
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