Munched my way through this with relish. It has the same mix of honesty,non-judgmental observation and fascinating historical detail that I'm coming to love with Louis de Bernieres. It is ( as seems to be his style) a touch long winded in sections (in this case the Mustafa Kemel sections) but even these are fascinating, so they inspire only the mildest spike of irritation and nothing more.

I'm fast coming to love this writer. *makes grabby hands for another of his books*

554 pages, a couple of breaks in between, shuttling between the audiobook and regular book and few months later, finally finished Birds Without Wings! I feel like I’ve been in a marathon. The first 40 or so chapters were challenging – found it overdescibed with an army of characters and seriously could you say that and describe that a bit more succinctly? There were some flashes of greatness in the writing but they were overshadowed by verbosity. It wasn’t until the 40th or so chapter that I felt the book began to flow more smoothly as it began to focus more on Mustafa Kemal and the war and the writing style graduated to being more to the point of narrating the story rather than description for description sake. The richness of the historical era of that period has always held my interest and the seeming co-existence of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews and others during that period is indicative of how it can be. Mustafa Kemal is a fascinating personality as well as one can see how and where modern Turkey derived its roots. If it hadn’t been for the slug in the first one third of the book, I would have given it a higher rating. It sure would have been a better read if it had been about one-third shorter as well!

ttOnce again, author Louis de Berniéres kindles a hauntingly beautiful sense of pathos for humankind in a deeply evocative yet historically rich novel. In Birds Without Wings De Berniéres displays the terrible effects of war on the average person and the triumph of human compassion between people of different origins. During the age of the waning Ottoman empire, when there is intense nationalism everywhere, de Berniéres questions the origins of such national labels themselves. Through the story of a town from the eyes of different townspeople, he constructs an in depth historical novel in an extremely personal way. De Berniéres explores greater conflicts of the world in the time period surrounding World War I through these more intimate relationships between average people. The writing style is very rich and the layout of short chapters from perspectives of different characters adds to the roundness and reality of the novel, making the tragedy all the more real and heartbreaking. Just as in Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a previous novel of de Berniéres, the reality and believability of the characters and the plot juxtapose the romantic themes such as passion, war, and nationalism in a way that makes the tragedy that the people of the world actually went through more catastrophic. The more historically focused sections depicting the absolute leaders and generals are in an insightful contrast to the way their decisions and the prejudices of the world shape the small decisions and fate of average people trying to live their lives. The underlying metaphor of birds throughout the novel gives it an interesting spin ending in a profound conclusion about the helplessness of humans being unable to free themselves from the will of the world. This was a deeply moving read, and it was saddening for the novel to be over after getting to know the many characters and seeing them grow up and grow old.
tIn Birds Without Wings, not one of the twelve main characters, but a small seaside town in Southern Anatolia in what is currently Turkey could easily be called the true protagonist. The town is representative of the generally tolerant atmosphere of the Ottoman Empire, where Christians, Muslims, Greeks and Turks live together in codependence and harmony. Everyone speaks Turkish, although they write in Greek letters. It is only the Christians who know how to read, while the Muslims memorize an abundance of passages out of the K’oran. It is lovely to get a sense of the town in a way that exposes the injustices that go on, as well as the strong bonds of friendship between neighbors.
tThere is Philothei a vainly beautiful Christian whose best friend is the loyal however ugly Drosula; and of course there is Ibrahim the Muslim boy who has been devoted to the sweet natured Philothei since childhood, and eventually he becomes her betrothed. And then there is Abdul and Nicos who are nicknamed after toy bird whistles made for them by Iskander the potter. The Aba Rustem Bey finds his wife Tamara Hanim to be an adulteress and after disowning her finds solace in a woman Leyla Hanim who claims to be Circassian but is actually a Greek named Ioanna. There is a teacher Daskos Leondas who believes in the “great idea”, the unification of the Greece in its times as the Byzantine empire, who is deeply ridiculed by many and understood seemingly by none. Through the simple lives of this relatively uneducated populace, de Berniéres explores the kindness of people and the compassionate bonds people are able to form while at the same time circumstances of the greater world can result in prejudice and also alter their fate.
tWhen Iskander the potter makes these bird whistles for best friends Abdul and Nicos, he tells them that “man is a bird without wings, and bird is a man without sorrows” (p 44), something that is proven in further development of the novel. The boys are forever called by the name of the bird after which their whistle was designed, Karatavuk and Mehmetcik, respectively. After years of war the two best friends are reunited briefly, and when Mehmetcik must flee, Karatavuk writes after him in a letter that he knows no one will probably ever read, “This place is still very beautiful, and the bulbuls and nightingales still keep us away at night.” (p 550) In particular their friendship and the ways in witch they teach each other exhibit the fraternal nature of humans, ironically while each of their peoples are fighting wars that were declared holy by the dictators of the world. Evokes a great sense of loss that the world went through in that the great peace and tolerance that simple people are capable of did not exist in the years of the many seemingly inevitable world wars and territorial disputes. They are eventually separated, and in the end Iskander the simple potter realizes about much of the town’s ordeal that “everything that happened was made to do so by the great world.” (p 537)
tThrough the more in depth historical background told through a look at Mustafa Kemal, the general turned founder of the modernTurkish Republic, the many disputes of boundaries are seen. From the Third Balkan War, to World War I, then the struggle between Turkey and Greece for independence, De Berniéres takes the reader on a whirlwind of depth and historical isight.
tThrough Karatavuk’s Turkish narrative of the legendary battle of Gallipoli, it is seen that “In seeking our good ends we often bring about our own misfortune” (p 525). De Berniéres shows on a personal level of an average soldier from each side the good they believe they are fighting for in their hearts, but also all the bloodshed and sorrow that comes out of it. It is significant how not only is justice done to the horror of the battle in Karatavuk’s narration, but also how the men are humanized. Both sides are seen as they call each other by name while working together to gather the dead after battle, and how they not only throw shells over enemy lines, but gifts, because the Franks have terrible meat, and the Turks have awful shoes. It’s curiously pointed out that after great battles, the bodies get so confused that the only indication of where they should go is by uniform. Many soldiers took the best uniforms they could find from whichever side those happened to be from, and each soldier is if possible sent back to that side. This, as de Berniéres points out without actually saying it, the question of burial on ones own land is pointless, considering the number of times in history one country has taken it from another and relabeled it as their own to the point where as with history, it has no ends or beginnings and it is preposterous to individually claim the Earth which is collectively ours. The identification by uniform, possibly symbolism for race or nationality, indicates the stupidity in the soldiers who have been taught to shoot at a man based on a blurred image of whichever uniform they are wearing, possibly even shooting their own brother if he happened to find a better change of clothes. This in contrast with the fraternal behavior of both sides in times when they were not fighting was hauntingly beautiful and poetic in the most tragic and also uplifting way.
Birds Without Wings is an emotional masterpiece and while the historical information could be viewed as dated, the way in which de Berniéres uses it to depict human behavior made the novel immensely insightful and the way in which simple characters were used allowed for the true profoundness of the time to sink in and move the reader. In the end, a death is a death, and if there is any truth in the old Muslim proverb that when one man is saved, so is the world, than there must be equal truth in that when one man dies, the world dies with him. Men even in fighting for liberty are not always free, “Because we cannot fly, we are condemned... we are pushed into struggles and abominations that we did not seek...” (p 550- 551)), For we are birds without wings. “For birds with wings nothing changes; they fly where they will and they know nothing about borders and their quarrels are very small.�� (p 551)

"There comes a point in life where each one of us who survives begins to feel like a ghost that has forgotten to die at the right time"

This book. This beautiful book. What a book to read during this rise of nationalism and appeals for a 'white ethnostate' - to watch how ideologies like this have played out before.

Birds Without Wings is funny and horrible, full of appreciation for regular, poor people, and full of animosity towards the head honchos with their big ideas that bring the most beautiful things to ruin.

The premise of this book was promising—a portrait of Turks, Greeks, and Armenians from an early 20th century Anatolian town before and during the collapse of their world—but its style took some getting used to. Chapters are short, episodic, and disjointed, rotating points of view among the large cast of characters. Although the protagonists evolve, there is no central tension driving the narrative, making an already lengthy book seem longer.

Then there are the politics. Louis de Bernières relates many key events of the Balkan Wars and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire through a prism that many will find objectionable. He condemns all violence and nationalistic extremism (kudos), but he does not assign responsibility equally, blaming Turkish nationalists largely on Greek nationalists while eulogizing the imperialist regime the latter reacted against. Although he acknowledges the atrocities of the Armenian genocide, he again absolves the governing regime of any real responsibility for it. I could go on, but you get the point. As someone with roots in these conflicts, who has known survivors and children of survivors, I find it difficult to take such commentary lying down.

Why then the four stars? Because although de Bernières’s interpretations may rankle, I’d like to believe his is just one perspective on a history that admits many perspectives. Because although his writing style requires some adjustment, it is downright enjoyable once you get into its rhythm. And most of all because the human stories he weaves are fascinating in a way that only distant worlds can be fascinating, and poignant in a way that only extreme experiences can be poignant. Vignettes of daily life—the ritual exhumation of the dead, the purchase of a mistress—combine with moments of real drama—a rescue from a death march, a descent into madness—to leave me at a loss for words; all I could articulate for weeks was, “Oh, the humanity!”

Four and a half stars, really. A beautifully done pastiche of Turkey in the early 20th century, in flux from the Ottoman Empire to Ataturk's independent secular nation, before during and after WW I. De Bernieres creates a village on the Mediterranean Coast, and uses the lives and adventures of its inhabitants to illuminate the cultural, religious and political conflicts of the time. His characters are memorable, his history well-informed, and his style immaculate. Full disclosure: I've been to this part of Turkey, so I'm probably prejudiced in favor of this book. That said, BWW compares favorably to de Berniere's wonderful Corelli's Mandolin, so that alone is reason enough to read it.
Be warned: this was a harsh and brutal period in a turbulent country, and de Bernieres doesn't turn aside from describing clearly, i.e, graphically. The Gallipoli scenes are particularly affecting. But the inherent humanity and dignity of his characters is a counterweight to this desolation and the net result is a nuanced portrait of the time.

I tired, I did try, and I wanted to like and indulge myself in this book. But it was self-indulgent shite. Perhaps de Berniers was writing this and was totally encapsulated by the little world he was creating, the “subtle” political and religious humour, always tempered and measured. I just became so irritated with the pretension of it all, Iskander The Potter and all that baloney. Chapters entitled "Karatuvuk Remembers (3)". Wank. A waste of holiday time, but I can’t help but thinking I should give it one more chance to see if I’m missing something.

That such a place existed and the way it was lost, is heartbreaking. This is a story of the complicated and complex cultural bag called the Ottoman Empire and its emergence as Turkey. What a revealing story beautifully told by Mr. Bernieres. I bogged down midway through during the war scenes, but once past that point it was a race to the end. On to an easy and mindless read after this epic story.

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.

I read this book with a small group of ten friends who read one book/month and meet in each other's homes on rotation. Everyone in the group except my partner Bob and I liked this book--we both hated it. De Bernieres is a talented writer at the language level, but for a book that seemed to pride itself on duplicating the voices of numerous characters from their youth to adulthood, covering different ethnicities, genders, and religious affiliation, I did not find any character that could be expanded to much more than a skeleton with a motif pinned to it. An omniscient narrator interspersed his/her observations with first-person accounts, but there was never a sense of whom the audience might be for the first-person narrators, and the omniscient narrator included a lot of clumsy exposition and versions of events throughout that were contradictory.

The novel wants to be an historical fiction set in the time period when Turkey becomes a nation at the end of the Ottoman Empire, but the history seemed heavily slanted toward Turkish nationals. I never quite trusted the narrator, which I would think is of importance in historical fiction.

It’s too hard to review! There’s some beautiful writing, believable characters and plenty of history to learn, but, the scope of the book is so vast that it’s easy to lose the storyline.

The story is told from the point of view of many different characters from a village in Turkey where Christians, Jews and Muslims, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, and others, had lived peacefully for generations. As the region descends into one war after another leading to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of modern Turkey, these characters’ lives are ripped apart, leaving them as powerless as birds without wings.

It’s an epic story; and one that’s especially hard to read knowing what’s happening in the world right now.

The scenes set in the trenches in Gallipoli and the chapters from the point of view of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were too long for me; and it made me feel like I was reading a history textbook rather than a novel set in the region. Some background was necessary, but not so much. I needed more from the individual characters

Χμμμ, δεν ξέρω πώς να το κρίνω αυτό το βιβλίο. Γενικά όταν διαβάζω ιστορικά μυθιστορήματα και ειδικά αυτά που αφορούν τους πολέμους μεταξύ Ελλάδας - Τουρκίας, προσπαθώ να είμαι όσο πιο αντικειμενική μπορώ, να μην αφήσω τον πατριωτισμό να με επηρεάσει. Έλα όμως που δεν είναι πάντα εύκολο.
Χωρίζω από μόνη μου το βιβλίο σε τρία μέρη.
Στο πρώτο μέρος, περιγράφει τη ζωή στο Εσκίμπαχτσε, όπου ζουν μαζί χωρίς προβλήματα Αρμένιοι, μουσουλμάνοι και χριστιανοί κάπου στις αρχές του 20ου αιώνα. Η περιγραφή είναι εξαιρετική, τόσο ο χώρος όσο και τα άτομα που παρουσιάζονται περιγράφονται όμορφα και με σαφήνεια. Ιδιαίτερα καλά περιγράφεται ο τρόπος ζωής, η καθημερινότητα και η αρμονική συμβίωση ανάμεσα στους πιστούς των θρησκειών που είχαν βρει τρόπο να απομακρύνουν τους φανατισμούς και να σέβονται ο ένας τη θρησκεία του άλλου.
Στο δεύτερο μέρος... αρχίζουν οι πόλεμοι και πολλοί από τους πρωταγωνιστές του βιβλίου πολεμούν ή υφίστανται τις συνέπειες των πολέμων. Είναι εξαιρετικά τα κεφάλαια που ένας εκ των βασικών πρωταγωνιστών (δεν θέλω να πω ποιος) περιγράφει τις αναμνήσεις του από τη συμμετοχή του στον πόλεμο και την εμπειρία του από τις μάχες στα χαρακώματα, είναι θαυμάσια η περιγραφή του τρόπου που διεξαγόταν παλιότερα οι μάχες, πριν κυριαρχήσουν οι μηχανές και τα αεροπλάνα.
Να πω επίσης ότι εμβόλιμα στην πλοκή υπάρχουν κεφάλαια που ονομάζονται "Μουσταφά Κεμάλ" και όπως καταλαβαίνετε από τον τίτλο είναι καταγραφή της ζωής του Κεμάλ και των ιστορικών γεγονότων που διαδραματίζονταν. Οι ιστορικές αυτές αναφορές συμπορεύονται και προχωρούν στο χρόνο ταυτόχρονα με την πλοκή και τη ζωή των πρωταγωνιστών της ιστορίας
Τώρα όσον αφορά το "τρίτο μέρος" είναι λίγο δύσκολο να το δω αντικειμενικά. Το βιβλίο είναι γραμμένο ξεκάθαρα από τη μεριά των Τούρκων (ή σωστότερα των Οθωμανών), οπότε στην ουσία εξιστορεί την "άλλη πλευρά" της ιστορίας. Σε φέρνει αντιμέτωπο με τα εγκλήματα που έκαναν οι Έλληνες, βάζει Τούρκους να περιγράφουν τα όσα είδαν όταν μπήκαν στα μέρη τα οποία μόλις είχε εγκαταλείψει ο Ελληνικός στρατός και όπως και να το κάμουμε δεν είναι ωραίο να βρίσκεσαι αντιμέτωπος με εγκλήματα που έκαναν οι ομοεθνείς σου. Δεν είναι ανθελληνικό το βιβλίο- κάθε άλλο, μη δώσω τέτοια εντύπωση. Μιλάει και για τη γενοκτονία των Αρμενίων και για τα εγκλήματα των Τούρκων, απλά μιλάει και για όσα έκαναν οι Έλληνες.
Σε αυτό το μέρος, το τμήμα που καταλαμβάνει η καταγραφή ιστορίας είναι λίγο μεγαλύτερο σε σχέση με το υπόλοιπο βιβλίο, οπότε η προσωπική ζωή των πρωταγωνιστών του βιβλίου μένει λίγο πίσω, αλλά πραγματικά δίνει μια αρκετά καλή περιγραφή των γεγονότων που προηγήθηκαν της μικρασιατικής καταστροφής και της στάσης που κράτησαν οι Ευρωπαίοι σε όλα αυτά τα γεγονότα.
Δεν ξέρω, αν θεωρείτε τον εαυτό σας ώριμο αναγνωστικά ώστε να διαβάσετε ένα βιβλίο που βάζει ορισμένα πράγματα στη θέση τους (ειλικρινά τώρα, υπάρχει άνθρωπος που πιστεύει ότι σε έναν πόλεμο μόνο η μια πλευρά εγκληματεί;) να το διαβάσετε οπωσδήποτε, το μόνο που μπορεί να σας εμποδίσει από το να του δώσετε βαθμό 10/10 είναι ο θιγόμενος εθνικός εγωισμός- ή τουλάχιστον έτσι νομίζω εγώ.

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