The Beekeeper of Aleppo

by Christy Lefteri

But in Syria there is a saying: inside the person you know, there is a person you do not know.

world and there will still be darkness. It’s not like the darkness of the night, which also has white light from the stars, from the moon. This darkness is inside me and has nothing to do with the outside world.

You are too soft, too sensitive. This is an admirable quality when it comes to working with bees, but not now. I

Aleppo is now like the dead body of a loved one, it has no life, no soul, it is full of rotting blood.

‘When you belong to someone and they are gone, who are you?

People are not like bees. We do not work together, we have no real sense of a greater good – I’ve come to realise this now.