Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3397 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-11
• Released on: 2005-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Independent on Sunday
'Captivating and compelling-A masterpiece'

Synopsis
Set against the backdrop of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, the Gallipoli campaign and the subsequent bitter struggle between Greeks and Turks, "Birds Without Wings" traces the fortunes of one small community in south-west Anatolia - a town in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully for centuries. When war is declared and the outside world intrudes, the twin scourges of religion and nationalism lead to forced marches and massacres, and the peaceful fabric of life is destroyed. Philothei, a Christian girl of legendary beauty, and Ibrahim the Goatherd who has courted her since infancy are but two of the many casualties. With the end of a community that once transcended religious differences, their great love seems destined to end in tragedy and madness...

About the Author
Louis De Bernieres:
Louis de Berni-res' first three novels are The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best First Book Eurasia Region, 1991), Se-or Vivo and the Coca Lord (Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book Eurasia Region, 1992), and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. The author was selected as one of the Granta twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. Captain Corelli's Mandolin won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book, 1995. His most recent book is Red Dog.

Customer Reviews

Very impressive and beautifully written
I am originally from Izmir, Karsiyaka, and I was really surprised to find some events that happened in Turkish-Greek war that my grandmother had been telling us about, in this book.

For example, the Turkish soldiers taking revenge from Greeks in Izmir because of what they had seen in Anatolia. When Turkish army entered Karsiyaka, my grandmother saw a Turkish soldier, and asked him to spare her Greek neighbours (they were close friends). The Turkish soldier replied back: "do you know what we have seen in Anatolia?!".

Similarly, the story about setting part of Izmir on fire because of snipers killing Turkish soldiers from houses in Christian neighbourhoods.

It is a real pity that these events took place, and I really hope we can learn some lessons and never let that happen again.

For that reason alone, I would recommend everyone to read this book!

Needs some serious editing
I loved Captain Corelli's Mandolin when I read it as a teenager over 10 years ago, and was expecting something along the same vein here- I was disappointed however. It's not all bad, but you really have to struggle to stay interested in the characters, and the plot is so disjointed and interspersed with pages and pages of virtually unreadable history. In fact it feels as though it is a history lesson with a story thrown in as an afterthought.

Mixed feelings
Well, as the title of my review says, I had mixed feelings about this book. Let me say this much, if it weren't for the historical inaccuracies, I would have given this novel five stars. It's beautifully written, an engaging web of stories that just feels so right and true - it *feels like* a wonderfully accurate recreation of events: part poetry, part history lesson, part folk story.

But it is for this very reason that I disliked this novel as well. Although it gives every appearance of having been very carefully and painstakingly researched, the author seems to have fallen for the shameful lies and propaganda put forward by the Turkish government to this day, in which they pretend that atrocities that they committed were in fact committed against them. He appears to have taken all of his research directly from the Turkish government, and completely ignores accounts of events from France, Germany, the US (etc etc etc) - from civilians and politicians and newspapers, not to mention accounts from actual survivors of the Armenian Genocide, who were forced to leave the country between 1915 and 1923. He presents the Turkish government's justifications for their atrocities as if they are fact - when the records of every other government and respected historian in the world states the exact opposite. I read Mr de Bernieres' descriptions of Greek and Armenian "atrocities" and "revenge" with a mixture of anger, sadness and despair. When such a talented novellist has the power to transmit this distorted version of history to a public consciousness that has largely forgotten the Armenian Genocide, it seems likely that the Turkish government will succeed in their efforts to white wash the events completely from history.

note: Turkey still has laws against "insulting Turkishness", and regularly prosecutes Turkish novellists and journalists who try to enlighten their countrymen as to what really happened during WW1. Many of these writers have been assassinated or threatened by nationalists. In this sort of environment, who should you trust - the Turkish government's version of events, or those of respected historians worldwide?