Questions About The Beekeeper of Aleppo

by Christy Lefteri

Reader Q&A

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Answered Questions (20)

Can anyone tell me is Mohammed real or is he a figment of Nuri's imagination?

Dorothy Dupree

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

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How much beekeeping is there? Like, is it mostly in the title or is there significant beekeeping action? (This is not a hoax and I am not trying to be funny. I enjoy when fiction includes good nature writing.)

Crys I want to echo the person who mentioned that bees/beekeeping and what they come to represent ARE an integral part of the story. There's not a lot of t…moreI want to echo the person who mentioned that bees/beekeeping and what they come to represent ARE an integral part of the story. There's not a lot of technical content related to beekeeping, though, no. The narrator does repeatedly come back to his memories of beekeeping, the sounds of the bees, different strategies for interacting with the bees, different types of bees, how he learned to do different things with/for the bees, etc. And the bee/beekeeping content never disappears; there is talk of bees and beekeeping up through the very end of the story.(less)

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I'd welcome discussion w/readers of this book Most things congeal into some sort of sense, yet the last 2-3 chapters leave me with several questions. Do they make it to UK or does Moustafa meet them in Greece ultimately (because of presence of Moroccan man at the hospital) .. Why is Nuri found half in/out of a seaside at the end? Were they actually smuggled out after horrors at drug dealer home? And more ....

Andrea Antunes The B&B is located in England south east (I guess think of it as just getting through the closest English boarder). When Mustafa visits Nuri (oh how h…moreThe B&B is located in England south east (I guess think of it as just getting through the closest English boarder). When Mustafa visits Nuri (oh how happy I was!) he tells the Nuri and the Moroccan man that he's traveled from Yorkshire, England.

The book does have a missing gap from their airplane ride from Greece to England. Christy does not share the details or their arrival into England.

To answer why Nuri is found half in and out of the seaside end, you must remember the Moroccan man helping Nuri from the closet. It seemed one day he saw a key in his room and he was somehow guided towards a door at the end of the hall (closet door), he opens the door and he is back in Aleppo. So this was one of the many instances where he is sleep walking (?) or hallucinating, which are clinical criteria that meets the diagnosis of PTSD from the trauma of war at home and his time traveling as a refugee.
Sorry, but stay with me... That night Nuri saw Muhammad in the garden and followed him out of the B&B, lead through the streets, and made their stop at the beach. Muhammed told Nuri to go into the water, which at first he refused. After Mohammed went in, he did too. It seems that there the chapter ended and the next time we hear about this incident he was found in and out of the water at the beach.

I think it's also important to discuss why Christy stated it as half in and out of the seaside and not just washed ashore or found on the beach. I believe that it may be another symbol infused in the literature to indicate that Nuri is living in the past and present, half in half out of reality.

The symbolism and foretelling in this book makes for really beautiful literature and a compelling but heart breaking story.(less)

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So I can let the book group know: in approximately what time period does the story take place?