Once again this author has chosen a topic we know or hear little of in the southern hemisphere.
Nisha, a Sri Lankan widow, has no option other than to seek employment as a domestic servant in Cyprus. It means she must leave her beloved daughter in the care of her mother and miss Kumari's childhood years but she wishes to fulfill her dream of sending Kumari to university, to create a better life.
She is fortunate to be placed with another widow, Petra,heavily pregnant with her first child. Nisha forms a strong bond with baby Aliki, as Petra is still grieving for her husband. Petra returns to work full time as an optician to support her household.
Upstairs lives Yiannis, who has lost his bank job, his home and his wife. He survives by illegal poaching of songbirds for the black market. He and Nisha have fallen in love and one day he proposes marriage. He has to reveal to Nisha his means of income, to prove that he can support her and her daughter and mother financially. Nisha is disappointed and asks him to stop. The following day Nisha disappears from their lives. The police are not interested and believe she has left of her own choice. Neither Petra nor Yiannis accept this and together they seek answers to her disappearance.
The book was inspired by the real life disappearance of several domestic workers in Cyprus. These migrants feel invisible as they have no status and often find themselves placed in abusive situations, heavily indebted to their agents.
The author brings to life these women, gives them a voice and tells their story for them. I was planning to search online but the in depth author's notes at the conclusion of the story made this unnecessary. It is a poignant tale which caused this reader to shed a tear.

UpstairsTen years pass and ( )

Beautifully written, atmospheric, sensitive and searching.

Petra, while searching for her missing maid, Nisha, explores the thoughts that she never really knew the woman who ran her household for ten years, and who practically raised Petra's daughter.

Yiannis, Nisha's love, struggles through her disappearance as well, and strives to become a new, better man.

The book also absorbs you into the Cyprus scenery, wildlife, and many beautiful birds.

Was tracking at a solid four stars, but the racism drum just got beat a little too hard. Too many confuse class issues with race. So, down to three we are.

Lovely book, though. Worth a read. ( )

Set in present day Cyprus
This is the story of Nisha a well loved and liked domestic servant from Sri Lanka she is working for a lady called Petra who has a young daughter called Aliki.
Nisha is also having a love affair with Yiannis.
Everything is going well until one day Yiannis tells Nisha that he captures and kills Songbirds. She doesnt like this. Yiannis also proposes to Nishi and is willing to move to Sri Lanka to care for Nisha and her daughter Kumari.
Petra does care for Nisha but really wants her all to herself to cook,clean and bring Aliki up.
One night Nishi goes missing, Petra goes to the local Police who dont do anything. Yiannis thinks his fellow poacher Sereaphim who is very dodgy has something to do with her disapperance.
Eventually it turns out to be a Serial killer hunting Domestic foreign workers as they don't have proper roots and are the Police don't take it when the go missing as serious as if it was a local Woman.

Good easy to read book. ( )

Smooth, well-written story set in Cypress modern day where apparently it is common for families to hire a maid, usually Sri Lankan, Vietnamese, Nepal, or the Phillipines. The maids have left their families at home to earn money to send home or to gain freedom, though they end up with little. So Nisha the maid works for a Cypriot woman whose husband has died before the birth of their baby. Nisha is warm, loving and a fixture in the household but she disappears. Her boyfriend is a good guy who is trying to stop earning money as a songbird poacher (an illegal delicacy in some restaurants). The woman and the boyfriend are rebuffed by the police who will not investigate. But she left her passport behind. Other woman disappear, still the police do nothing. ( )

Beautiful cover, beautiful writing but the subject matter was difficult, heartbreaking to read. The second book I've read set in Cyprus and in both books the eating of songbirds is a delicacy. In this book the trapping if the birds was given in more, heart-rending detail. The trapping of the birds is in juxtaposition to the trapping of women, or rather the traps they are led into. Nissa had left her home in Sri Lanka, left her young daughter in the care of her mother and came to Cyprus to earn money to send home. Like many necessary workers she is not really seen as a person but as someone to take advantage of without any recourse in a country that is not her own.

Nisei becomes integral to Petra , taking care of her young daughter and household, when after the death of her husband she is unable to cope. After eight years Petra knows little of Nissas life and it doesn't concern her until Nissa goes missing. The authorities don't care, after all these are foreign women, they come and they go. As we learn Nissa story, we also uncover Petra's story as well as that of Yiannis, the man who had come to love Nissa.

This is a tragic story, one repeated over and over, in many countries. Those we don't see or recognize as people with thoughts and feels it's that match our own. Refugees, migrant workers, the displaced, native Americans on reservations, immigrants, trafficked women. The list goes on and on. This book was at times hard to read, but it is an important one and a necessary one. ( )