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A review by patty_kansascity
The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail
4.0
RATING - 3.5 (bumped up for topic)
"When I was held in captivity for three months, I wished for the world. The problem isn't that the world was going to end, but that it continues without any change." (Nadia, page 173)
I bumped up my rating to 4-star because it's important. These are the stories of people who have fled homes, lost family, been kidnapped, abused, sold, and so on by ISIS. It took me a bit to get into the book because, as horrifying as the stories are, the author doesn't put emotion into the retelling of them, so the delivery can be rather dry. I'm not sure if the emotion was lost in translation, cultural differences or on purpose, but I came to value it. By NOT riding on the coattails of the author's emotion, I had to read slower and let these stories enter my brain, really consider them, put myself into some of the stories, and then my heart was moved.
These are the stories of people before they end up on national media -- before the drown child is found on the beach, before the capsizing of boats/rafts from too many refugees trying to escape, before the tent cities of refugee camps. This book will help you realize WHY they are fleeing to begin with.
Nothing changes if we don't know their sufferings. Ignorance is not an excuse.
"When I was held in captivity for three months, I wished for the world. The problem isn't that the world was going to end, but that it continues without any change." (Nadia, page 173)
I bumped up my rating to 4-star because it's important. These are the stories of people who have fled homes, lost family, been kidnapped, abused, sold, and so on by ISIS. It took me a bit to get into the book because, as horrifying as the stories are, the author doesn't put emotion into the retelling of them, so the delivery can be rather dry. I'm not sure if the emotion was lost in translation, cultural differences or on purpose, but I came to value it. By NOT riding on the coattails of the author's emotion, I had to read slower and let these stories enter my brain, really consider them, put myself into some of the stories, and then my heart was moved.
These are the stories of people before they end up on national media -- before the drown child is found on the beach, before the capsizing of boats/rafts from too many refugees trying to escape, before the tent cities of refugee camps. This book will help you realize WHY they are fleeing to begin with.
Nothing changes if we don't know their sufferings. Ignorance is not an excuse.