Songbirds cover art

Songbirds

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Songbirds

By: Christy Lefteri
Narrated by: Indira Varma, George Georgiou, Art Malik, Lolita Chakrabarti
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

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.

©2021 Christy Lefteri (P)2021 Bonnier Books UK
Europe Literary Fiction Fiction Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Emotionally Gripping
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Color of Our Sky cover art
Sparks Like Stars cover art
The Indigo Girl cover art
Light to the Hills cover art
At the Breakfast Table cover art
The Girl Across the Sea cover art
The Child of Ukraine cover art
Other Words for Home cover art
The Book of Gutsy Women cover art
Girls on the Line cover art
A Feather on the Water cover art
America's First Daughter cover art
The Book Woman's Daughter cover art
The Secrets of Rochester Place cover art
The Secret of Villa Alba cover art
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek cover art

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 ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    428
  • 4 Stars
    146
  • 3 Stars
    44
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    434
  • 4 Stars
    101
  • 3 Stars
    27
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    374
  • 4 Stars
    128
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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 .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!