Hayes, Dade; D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 5, 2021). " 'Hunger Games' Prequel To Start Production In First Half Of 2022, Lionsgate Film Boss Joe Drake Says". Deadline . Retrieved August 6, 2021. After learning the Capitol intentionally starves the tributes, Coriolanus gifts Lucy Gray with food. The other mentors follow suit, including Coriolanus’s best friend, Sejanus Plinth, who fails to build trust with his tribute, Marcus. Another mentor, Arachne Crane, abuses her tribute, Brandy, causing her to fatally stab Arachne. The Peacekeepers shoot Brandy, and her body is paraded at Arachne's funeral procession. In this heartfelt novel by the author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, a Sri Lankan domestic worker goes missing from her employer’s home in Cyprus, and the widowed homeowner herself sets out to find her after the police show no interest.” — The New York Times

Inspired by the real-life disappearance of domestic workers in Cyprus, Christy Lefteri has crafted a poignant, deeply empathetic narrative of the human stories behind the headlines. With infinite tenderness and skill, SONGBIRDS offers a triumphant story of the fight for truth and justice, and of women reclaiming their lost voices." To punish the rebels, two 'tributes', a boy and a girl from each District are chosen to fight to the death in an annual competition known as the Hunger Games. Coriolanus is chosen to mentor a tribute in the upcoming 10th Hunger Games; the mentor of the Games' victor receives a generous financial reward that Coriolanus wants to win. He is assigned the District 12 female tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, a member of the Covey nomadic music band. During the reaping, Lucy Gray sparks the Capitol's attention by defiantly singing and slipping a snake into the clothing of Mayfair Lipp, the mayor's cruel daughter. The story is told via alternate chapters by Petra and Yiannis, with the occasional short insert of a section whose significance becomes clear later, but which I felt at the time was a bit jarring. The imagery of the songbirds works well, but it felt a bit clunky at times. I found the first half quite slow but the sense of mystery does build and the prose is often lyrical and the writing clear. There are parts that are difficult to read, especially in relation to animals. And you can’t help but be moved by the lengths that the migrant workers like Nisha will go to to support their family. Yiannas, is Nisha's fiance. He loves her fiercely and wants to make a life with her. He is an illegal poacher of Songbirds that migrate to Cyprus from Africa. The songbirds foreshadow the story of migrants. A sad, heartbreaking tale.A beautifully crafted novel that sits at the intersection of race and class, that flags the frank truth of the life of migrant workers for whom a flight to freedom can become the most finely woven trap.”—JODI PICOULT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Two Ways This thought-provoking novel of love, loss, and redemption is thoroughly sublime.” —Caroline Montague, author of An Italian Affair

Even though it’s been nearly two years since I read Christy Lefteri’s award-winning second novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo, one of the things that has continued to stay with me whenever I think of that book is the affecting, haunting nature of the story. While I might not remember every detail of the plot, I do remember the gut-wrenching emotions that the story evoked. I was moved by Nuri’s and Afra’s heartrending story detailing their harrowing journey from war-torn Syria to Great Britain, trying their best to survive as refugees in a foreign and not necessarily welcoming country. Lefteri’s newest work, Songbirds, is written in a similar vein — a poignant, heartbreaking story that centers on foreign domestic workers on the Greek island of Cyprus.Songbirds by Christy Lefteri, another historical fiction novel, about the disappearance of a Sri Lankan nanny and how the most vulnerable people find their voices. From the best selling author of 'The Beekeeper of Aleppo'. This is the first book I have read by the author, and I must say being a historical fiction the writing is very smooth. When two maids reveal that Nisha’s bracelet has been found near an old, abandoned house, Petra fears the worst – the bracelet was a gift from Aliki, which she always wore. Unravelling The Mystery Ultimately a story about traps; bird traps, human traps, grief traps. On one level the story of a woman who goes missing, and the man and woman who search for her. Descending into the depths of this disappearance, we catch glimpses of the inter-connectedness of all; the life cycle of animals, the threads that connect all living life...or the beliefs that compartmentalize if we allow them to, a compartmentalization that allows mistreatment and dismissal. Interestingly, this isn't a mystery. It's a story about the people searching for Nisha and how their lives are affected without her. 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 Hopetrapping of the birds is in juxtaposition to the trapping of women, or rather the traps they are led into. Nisha 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.