The Beekeeper of Aleppo, by Christy Lefteri

This is a powerful novel about a refugee couple from Aleppo whose son died in a bombing. Nuri and his wife Afra, who was blinded in the bombing, decide to leave Aleppo after Nuri is threatened with death if he refused to join the militia. They make their way to Istanbul, then Greece, and eventually to England. The novel tells their story in chapters alternating between past and present, revealing the danger and indignities experienced by those who give up everything to make their way to a safer country. Initially, Afra appears the weaker of the two, but as the story develops, we learn of Nuri's own vulnerabilities. This is a wonderfully written novel by Christy Lefteri, who observed firsthand the tragedy of the Syrian refugee crisis when she served as a volunteer in Athens for UNICEF.