“One day, Nisha vanished and turned to gold. She turned to gold in the eyes of the creature that stood before me. She turned to gold in the morning sky and in the music of the birds.”
I ended my 2024 having read 68 books – far less than my goal, but considering the way my apple cart was upset, I’m happy with it. The last read of the year was a devastating beautiful read that left me a bit conflicted with my thoughts. I should have loved Christy Lefteri’s Songbirds, and there were moments that made me remember why I love reading, but there were also moments where I thought things fell just a touch short for me.
Short story long – this is a story of immigrant domestic workers, the lives they touch, and how unseen and undervalued they are. Set in Cyprus, the novel opens just after Nisha, a Sri Lankan domestic, has vanished. She worked for Petra, a widow, and has cared for Petra’s daughter, Aliki, since she was born – having left her own daughter in Sri Lanka in order to work. Aliki’s connection with Nisha is stronger than with her mother – the food, the warmth, the stories, the laughter – they all came from Nisha.
Nisha’s lover rents the space above them from Petra. Petra has no idea he’s been seeing her maid. (And would have undoubtedly forbidden it.) Only after Nisha disappears does Petra begin to see how her maid had touched those around her, and Yiannis is no exception. Yiannis, a former banker turned forager who is actually a poacher, captures and kills songbirds during their migration, selling the illegal delicacies to restaurants and bars and down back allies. High risk means high reward, and folks pay a killing for the small birds, but Yiannis wants out of the criminal enterprise. It’s not that easy though. The sections depicting poaching animals are devastatingly brutal yet exquisitely written. While I found the sections unsettling, they’re ultimately not what created conflict or fell flat – my issue lies with the character of Petra and her “woe is me. I never saw my maid as a person before now” song and dance, and the weight her voice carries in the story. How I wish other domestics or even Aliki carried those sections.
It’s a wonderfully crafted novel and the writing is much like a songbird, gorgeously haunting in spite of the plot, but wasn’t quite that five star read.
A Girl Named Tommi 