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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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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)
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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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-01-22
The unseen
Excellent narrators. A tough listen especially the fate of the songbirds but even worse is the treatment of the Sri Lankan women. Powerful
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2 people 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
- A.Mac
- 13-07-22
Food for thought
Lovely compassionate, sad observation of dawning realisation of those who employ maids from other countries about how much they contribute without complaining.
Comment about the audible side: the gaps between the chapters are sooooooooo long that each and every time, I had to make sure my headphones were still working! Small point but I found it really annoying and it broke the pace of the book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Stacy
- 06-08-22
long but a good story
a beautiful story shared from different perspectives. Read by great actors. It seemed longer than it needed to be at times.
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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
- Heather O’MALLEY
- 28-01-23
Brilliant read
Love this author will be listing to more for sure highly recommend. Very funny and takes you to a place you would love to go .
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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
- Teresa
- 15-07-23
A Moving Book...
I enjoyed this book. The narration was wonderful. The story, although fictional, was based on true events and, therefore, an eye-opener to domestic workers.
I don't want to say too much so as not to leave spoilers.
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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
- Mrs. K. Bolton
- 01-10-23
A fantastic experience
The themes were brilliantly crafted and the story was beautifully written
I was laughing and crying which is rare for me with an audio book
I loved the poignant pauses- the first time I had to check it was still playing but it added to the experience
Highly recommend it
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- N. Faulks
- 21-07-22
slow but interesting
Learned quite a lot listening to this, despite being a new world to me. also the lack of understanding and assumptions people make, when they know nothing.
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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
- Amazon Customer
- 07-06-23
Loved it
Loved it from a start to finish. Beautifully told two love stories. The narrators are so good to you could listen to them all day and night.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 04-10-23
Brilliant book but a difficult listen in places.
A beautifully-crafted book with some important themes.
I found some of the descriptions of poaching incredibly difficult to listen to, and at times I wanted to give up on the whole book. But in fact that is testament to the quality of the writing , and I’m glad I persevered, despite my sadness and discomfort.
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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
- Dr P.
- 09-09-23
Moving and beautifully narrated
I really enjoyed this story which left me in tears. I loved the perspective from the two main characters who build the picture of the beautiful character Nisha for us.
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