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Louis de Bernieres's last novel, "Corelli's Mandolin," was met with the highest praise: "Behind every page," said Richard Russo, "we sense its author's intelligence, wit, heart, imagination, and wisdom. This is a great book." A. S. Byatt placed the author in "the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh." Now, de Bernieres gives us his long-awaited new novel. Huge, resonant, lyrical, filled with humor and pathos, a novel about the political and personal costs of war, and of love-between men and women, between friends, between those who are driven to be enemies. It is the story of a small coastal town in South West Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire told in the richly varied voices of the people-Christians and Muslims of Turkish and Greek and Armenian descent-whose lives are rooted there, intertwined for untold years. There is Iskander, the potter and local font of proverbial wisdom; Karatavuk-Iskander's son-and Mehmetcik, childhood friends whose playground stretches across the hills above the town, where Mehmetcik teaches the illiterate Karatavuk to write Turkish in Greek letters. There are Father Kristoforos and Abdulhamid Hodja, holy men of different faiths who greet each other as "Infidel Efendi"; Rustem Bey, the landlord and protector of the town, whose wife is stoned for the sin of adultery. There is a man known as "the Dog" because of his hideous aspect, who lives among the Lycian tombs; and another known as "the Blasphemer," who wanders the town cursing God and all of his representatives of all faiths. And there is Philothei, the Christian girl of legendary beauty, courted from infancy by Ibrahim the goatherd-a great love that culminates in tragedyand madness. But "Birds Without Wings" is also the story of Mustafa Kemal, whose military genius will lead him to victory against the invading Western European forces of the Great War and a reshaping of the whole region. When the young men of the town are conscripted, we follow Karatavuk to Gallipoli, where the intimate brutality of battle robs him of all innocence. And in the town he left behind, we see how the twin scourges of fanatical religion and nationalism unleashed by the war quickly, and irreversibly, destroy the fabric of centuries-old peace. Epic in its narrative sweep-steeped in historical fact-yet profoundly humane and dazzlingly evocative in its emotional and sensual detail, "Birds Without Wings" is a triumph. --front flap
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Michael Smith
reviewed Birds without wings on September 11, 2008 Birds without wings
ETA on completion: Chrissie, stoip saying you love the book. Explain why! Everything explained below remains true. Other books are emotionally captivating, intellectually interesting, filled with humor and sorrow, What is it that makes this one different for me? It is that this book has a message. It looks at people and life and it says loud and clear how stupid we human beings are and how wonderful too! Does that make sense to you? Do you see life that way too?
Read with:
Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey and Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 and Not Even My Name: A True Story.
*******************
Few books have so emotionally moved me.
I know now that this book will get five stars, although I have only read about half.
Do not read this book, Listen to it. The narrator of the audiobook is John Lee. I bought the paperback. Then I went and bought the audiobook at Audible for two credits. I do not regret this splurge. This is a winner. I am not capable of separating the written book from the narration. As a whole it is simply ……perfect!
On an intellectual level it teaches. It teaches about life in a small village near Izmir, Turkey - which was called Smyrna when the novel takes place, in the early 1900s. The depiction of the village life, bustling with Greeks and Turks, Christians and Muslims teaches and amuses. There are Armenians too. So many different people and cultures and traditions - and they all blended and lived in harmony. Of course harmony scattered with village disputes and love affairs, pranks and numerous other everyday normal experiences. On the intellectual level you also learn about Attaturk. You learn about the battles of World War I. You do not just learn. You are in the trenches along with the men.
How dry this could all be. But you see this book is never dry. Each village character and even Attaturk becomes a close comrade. This is because every sentence emotionally pulls you in. There is satirical humor. What humor! You will be laughing at the worst of the war scenes…… I feel almost embarrassed to admit this. This author makes you laugh at the most horrific, and then he grows serious and a profound observation is elucidated. Wonderful vocabulary! And now someone has died. I am in tears, I laugh and I cry and I think and I learn.
I am emotionally captivated time after time after time.
I worried that I would not keep track of the diverse characters. This is no problem. The same characters remain from start to end,
I have never read such a marvelous seduction scene. Never! I have never encountered in a book the childish fright a young girl feels with her first bleeding, followed by the delightful discovery of womanhood. I have never so physically felt myself in the trenches at war. Horror and irony and laughter and profound philosophizing are all there in one scene. What writing! What narrating! Please listen to this book. If you have never tried audiobooks, start right here. You will be hooked. I am still a baby with audiobooks. This is a whole new world opening up to me. I want to share the experience with you. Please, listen to this book. If the audio format is inaccessible, OK, then read it.!
There is not one thing I can criticize in this book.
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