In his first novel since Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières creates a world, populates it with characters as real as our best friends, and launches it into the maelstrom of twentieth-century history. The setting is a small village in southwestern Anatolia in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Everyone there speaks Turkish, though they write it in Greek letters. It’s a place that has room … place that has room for a professional blasphemer; where a brokenhearted aga finds solace in the arms of a Circassian courtesan who isn’t Circassian at all; where a beautiful Christian girl named Philothei is engaged to a Muslim boy named Ibrahim. But all of this will change when Turkey enters the modern world. Epic in sweep, intoxicating in its sensual detail, Birds Without Wings is an enchantment.
more
Exciting information of the Ottoman Empire and the characters are so well defined that you can’t forget them. Their stories are followed throughout the book and details give you reason to be involved in their lives which are very complicated. The thinking of Muslim people is very unknown to me, the Koran, the prayers, the militaristic basis of the style in which they live. The time period seems so basic to survival and I want to know more about these people in modern times and why they are so violent about
cooperating with Christians. They are people with warm hearts and good ideas.
Excellent historical fiction filled with information that helped me understand the riff between Greece and Turkey. Great story telling.
A moving portrayal and reminder of the devastating cost and repercussions of war.
This book was an outstanding read. After more than 10 years, I still vividly recall the characters, the portrait of multi-cultural populations of Turkey, village life, the rise of Attaturk, and the unraveling of the empire.
The language was often poetic and, though a long book, easy to follow the narrative.
I really enjoyed this book’s modernism and the author’s commitment to look at the Ottoman era and celebrate its ethnic diversity, instead of work with the traditional “decline” narrative that we learn in school. It also makes strong points about nationalism and religion, the former of which I really liked and find timely in today’s world.
The author of one of my favorite books, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, moves north in this historical novel depicting the crumbling Ottoman Empire and the rise of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (the father of modern day Turkey). Set in a village in Anatolia (probably the current ghost town of Kayakoy) at the beginning of the 20th century, the cheerfully comingled population of Muslims and Christians speak Turkish but use the Greek alphabet (to the extent they are literate). Most are not, and a dominant theme is the free exchange of superstitions between the two religions as the locals try to manage the calamities of their daily lives, not the least of which is the constant call to offer up any able-bodied men to support the ongoing wars in the region – the Allies and the Axis, the Turks and the Greeks, the Kurds and the Armenians. The list goes on and De Bernières doesn’t pull any punches in his description of the atrocities committed by the warring factions – a description that could have been edited a bit without any harm to the story. The blending of historical events and characters with the town’s colorful cast of fictional characters (including a leech gatherer) is skillfully handled. The result is a compelling story with plenty of historical knowledge to be gained, notably a remarkable exchange of populations that occurred after WWI. To facilitate post-war treaties, Christians were sent to Greece and Muslims were imported to Turkey, with no thought given to transportation or the immigrant’s lack of language skills in their newly adopted countries.
Louis De Bernieres is one of the best writers of our time. I first met him through Corelli’s Mandolin which held me spellbound. This author takes us to unusual places and offers a depth and range few authors achieve.
His next book Birds Without Wings is another tour de force. Here he takes us to a small village in Anatolia during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Epic in sweep, intoxicating in its sensual detail. The birds without wings are whistles made by hand for two young boys. It’s heartbreaking what happens to them – and what happens to the villagers, more birds without wings.
While it deeply touches your heart it is not a sad book but rather a life-affirming story. This is one of my favorite books of all time. If you enjoy inhabiting a world far from your own in another time in history, you will love this book.
This is a story that stays with you and has you going to Wikipedia. I read it five years ago and it’s time to read it again.