As anyone who has read The Beekeeper of Aleppo knows, Christy Lefteri has a real gift for finding hope and a way forward for suffering people and communities. This 2023 title is another example of it.
Irini, who narrates, lives contentedly with her artist husband and beloved daughter on a Greek Island. Then comes a devastating forest fire which destroys most of the vegetation and kills several people. Many are left homeless. The causes are not straightforward. Fires like this are tragically common in hot, dry places and climate change has exacerbated the risk although Lefteri doesn’t dwell much on this. At the same time there’s a local rich guy, named Mr Monk, wanting to expand his hotel empire. The quickest way to get going is if the area is cleared by “natural forces”. Then planning regulations can be bypassed. So he deliberately started this fire. And it got out of hand. The disaster, moreover, was worsened by the dilatory response from the emergency services so apportioning blame is not a simple matter – and arguably pointless anyway
Lefteri’s narrative method is intriguing in this novel. The main story gives us Irini, Tasso and their daughter Chara living in house which belonged to her late father-in-law. Tasso has two bandaged hands because of serious burning. He is also in a deep depression and almost cut off from Irini and their daughter as he sits in the garden all day gazing into the distance. Chara meanwhile is recovering from severe and painful burns on her back with a map-like pattern of scarring.
Gradually we learn the whole story of what happened – including Irini’s finding of Mr Monk in the forest which is now almost all just charred stumps. And part of the unravelling takes the form of a third person story Irini writes, in which she recounts what happened to her family, keeping it distant and objective like a fairy story by not naming anyone. Telling/writing this story is part of Irini’s therapy. It means that Lefteri’s novel works like a mirror with a reflective outer ring and it’s pleasingly original.
The novel is full of delightful people too. There’s a couple who take in Irini and Chara when Tasso is still missing. They provide food, accommodation and transport and a new friend for Chara in the form of their son. They are tactful, generous and gloriously kind. Eventually they become friends – calling on Irini’s family when they finally resettle in the house of the father-in-law whose house survived the fire but he didn’t. And finally we learn the Kind Man and the Kind Man’s Wife are called Alexandros and Sophia. Then there’s Mrs Gataki, the friend Irini drinks coffee with at the Kafeneon and who loves crime novels – along with the café owner, Maria and the other regular customers. The police officer Lieutenant Makris is a good sort too. And that’s the thing about this uplifiting novel – of course people have different jobs, priorities and beliefs but they are nearly all fundamentally decent.
So are the animals. The family dog, Rosalie, is a delight. Somehow she manages to survive a long period in the sea with Irini and Chara when they are fleeing the fire and is a solid lovable presence in their lives. There is also a burned, lost baby jackal (yes, there really are jackals in parts of Greece). Chara finds and adopts him. The vet (another pleasant character) calls and takes him to her surgery for treatment to his burned paws and then Chara nurses him back to health – with support from Rosalie.
Irini, meanwhile, is deeply troubled about her encounter with Mr Monks in the ruins of the wood. Regret almost consumes her because she believes she should have taken action when she didn’t. In the end, it’s Tasso – hands at last unbandaged, beginning to mend and emerging from his depression – who tells her what she must do. And it assuages her guilt and gives her some peace.
At the end of the novel you know that this family will be all right. They love each other, they have support and hope for the future. And we never worry that Tasso is really lost because we know, from the framing device, that he’s alive and sitting in the garden.
It’s also a warning, though. Global warming, human greed and a culture of casual response service are a dangerous combination.
Next week on Susan’s Bookshelves: Erasure by Percival Everett
