Birds without wings describes the fictional town of Eskibahce, both in its heyday and after the fragmentation and displacement of its people. The powers that govern, much like destiny, “caress the few and molest the many”. This story explores the lives of these many and how their destiny was altered, and innocence was lost, due to war and conflicts from places foreign to themselves.

In this book, the characters lives are upended, we see their destinies crumble, their spirits diminish, and relationships ruined. Each character seems to have the sneaking suspicion or intuition that something has gone awry in their lives, and that their circumstances or decisions have gone-against their fate. This feeling or knowledge of having rejected one’s destiny - or having been rejected by it - are central to many of the characters in this book. Many characters feel as if their lives went way off track and that they did not leave Earth at the time they were meant to. This leaves them dejected, always carrying something dead within them that they can’t seem to shake off. Contrary to how the mad characters must feel; existing as death while still carrying something alive within them that can be neither accessed nor removed.

The scope of this book is sweeping, and it appeals to history, adventure, and tragedy. It shows peoples tendency for love and community, while also showing their inverse tendency to de-humanize each other. It contrasts the beauty of individual relationships with the perversity of mob behavior. It contrasts the relative peace of an individual community with the discordance of national power.

A character describes that when people see no escape, they become like birds without wings, they accept docility, and that their docility results in them doing things that they would never have agreed to. If they had the choice, they would choose a truer path… Or would they? There are multiple instances where mob’s breakout in Eskibahce, and these same people take evil actions solely because they are in a group. This evil in human behavior parallels the behavior of governments and their agents throughout this book. It’s as if the nation-state is the fervor of a mob manifested into an organized institution. While these characters have no choice but to submit to the governments demands, they do have the choice to treat others equitably within a mob and choose not to. De Bernieres does a great job of contrasting the good with the bad allowing us to see the reality behind our humanity.

While the oppression of government is a major component of the book, it is not what I found enduring. What will endure in my mind, is the spirit, joy, and heartbreak that each character brings to each other and to their town. This wide range of emotions will stay with me for a long time and I am grateful for the empathy and perspective that this book was able to provide. 5/5 exceptional modern novel.



Extra Thought: It might be a good idea to encourage younger students to read books where the protagonist is of an opposing culture/religion/ethnicity/status than their own. Books like this, clearly and compassionately reveal to people, that we are all not different at all - and that someone else’s experiences and emotions are really no different from our own.

Extraordinarily rich characters that are worth the effort to get straight. Must read for understanding of multiculturalism and the horrors of war and political division.

Birds Without Wings is a very ambitious effort to create an epic, depicting and following the lives of the inhabitants of a village in what is now Turkey, Muslims and Christians, during the dying years of the Ottoman Empire and the outbreak of the First World War, and following in parallel the rise of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to become the ruler of modern Turkey. A massive, well-researched work that enjoyed good writing style with a sarcastic tone, and had some interesting parts despite some flaws.

The opening chapters did not feel very promising, with the writer trying hard to persuade the reader to carry on till the end, promising an epic unthinkable tragedy. And even with understanding that, because of the book genre/style and ambition, the beginning had to be slow-paced with the diversity of side stories and characters taking priority over pushing the narrative forward, the first 300 pages were so redundant and repetitive that it could have been easily cut-off by a third without impacting any of the details or side stories, which is not a sign of great writing I'm afraid. A cliched spine around which the narrative and side-stories evolved didn't help much; an all-too-familiar ill-fated inter-faith love story. Patience was somewhat rewarded in the second half of the book which was a lot better with the faster pace and the vivid descriptions of life during wartime both in the trenches on the front and back in the village.

On a personal level, being familiar with the backdrop of Muslim-Christian co-existence and the role of traditions and superstition in peoples' lives probably took away from the fascination that an outsider reader would probably feel (and hence the wide critical acclaim). The writer did a lot to balance the narrative and show an equal account of atrocities committed by each group of people at that crazy era of sectarianism, nationalism and utopianism, and emphasised through his characters that each party would blame another on violence going back further and further till the start of time, but this did not deter him from pointing the finger quite clearly at the Greek prime minister at the time of the Great war, Eleftherios Venizelos, as well as the Birtish prime minister Lloyd George, sympathising with a particular view of the Ottoman empire that regards its system as a truly cosmopolitan and just one. I found taking sides here, in addition to contradicting the writer's own ideas in the book, unnecessary in the least.

Generally speaking, the shear volume of the book reflected redundancy and repetition rather than richness. The multiple narrators added some life to the events but they didn't offer enough diversity as their accounts were almost identical. An example of which were a similar description of the village by two strangers seeing it for the first time (a mistress of the Aga of the village, and a merchant from Smyrna/Izmir). The chapters dedicated to the main story, the doomed inter-faith love, were low points as they reeked of repetition and had a contrived ending. On the positive side, The chapters following the story of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's rise to power and the Great War were quite enjoyable, with short, concise and effective sentences, and they always came in the right time to plot a contrasting view of plans and decisions of big political powers against the lives of normal people and poor soldiers. Positive points include as well the realistic depiction of some primitive and brutal sides of most characters. The calm and peaceful side was shown side-to-side with the violent barbarism and tribalism, like the extreme beauty co-existing side-to-side with the extreme ugliness.

Overall it had very interesting parts scattered in between, and some truly humorous and reflexive writing. A Good reading experience (since even average writing can help us appreciate the masterpieces a bit more), and a recommended read for those interested in this historic period both from political and humanistic perspectives.

“The people who remained in this place have often asked themselves why it was that Ibrahim went mad. I am the only one who knows, but I have always been committed to silence, because he begged me to respect his grief, or, as he also put it, to take pity on his guilt.”

Set in southwestern Anatolia (today Turkey) before and during World War I, Birds Without Wings is a wonderful novel about a small village and the people who live there. Prior to the war, the community is made up of Muslims and Christians, who live peaceably together. We have Ibrahim, a young Muslim boy who loves the beautiful Christian girl named Philothei. They plan to marry, but the war will forever change their lives and the lives of everyone in their village.

This was the first book I’ve read of Louis De Bernieres (who also wrote the notable Corelli’s Mandolin). To say I was impressed in an understatement. It is nearly the perfect novel. The characters are engaging and unforgettable. The story is riveting. The writing is so eloquent – few authors ever achieve such brilliance. And to top it all off, De Bernieres includes some very real history of an area that most of us (myself included), know very little about. Birds Without Wings is now added to my “favorites” list! 4 1/2 stars!

Corelli's Mandolin is probably de Bernières most famous/popular novel, but it is my least favorite of those I've read. My memory says that it does not have the complexity of writing as does his South American novels. I loved this novel and its return to that complexity that I prefer. Of course, it isn't just the writing. Late in the novel, I considered this is another juxtaposition of war and peace. Not Tolstoy's novel, of course, but the contrast between war and peace makes for a good theme and the author does it well here.

The "peace" characters - done well, I might add - are set in a small town on the western edge of the Ottoman Empire before World War I. It is a small town of mixed ethnicity where the people get along with each other and respect one another. They are mostly Muslim and Christians with Turk and Greek ancestry. The families have inter-married over many generations and there is no real distinction between Turk and Greek and Greek is no longer spoken. However, one interesting side plot is that the Christian teacher is Greek and so the Christians learn to write the Turkish language with the Greek alphabet. The Muslims don't learn to write at all, being made to memorize the Koran.

I am not a student of The Great War, but my fascination with it continues. I learned so much in this novel! For me, the novel was more than that. I think I have never flagged so many lines in a novel as I did with this one. I have played backgammon online every day for years. (My brother taught me, so that we could have regular contact though we lived 2000 miles from each other.) Backgammon was created thousands of years ago somewhere in lands that eventually came to be the Ottoman Empire. I began to flag the references, most on the lines of: He shuns the Muslim cafes, and goes instead to the Kristal, the Olympus, the Yonyo, where he and his friends can play backgammon for five-para coins, drink beer and stuff themselves with meze in the ribald company of Greeks.

The other group of flags mostly had to do with birds. There are references to birds throughout the novel, just for themselves, their beauty, and how their variety affects us all. There are two, however, that de Bernières used to explain his title. The second one is in the last few pages of the novel and make the most sense in that place. Another one is much earlier in the novel. Iskander the Potter is a Muslim. One day he fashioned some bird whistles for his son and his son's Christian friend. All their lives they used the bird whistles to call to one another. But in giving them the whistles "Man is a bird without wings," Iskander told them, "and a bird is a man without sorrows."

I have said before that I have a fictitious top-ten list of books. It is a crowded list, and probably fluid below the top three or four. Today this is on the list. Maybe some day I'll be lucky enough to read another that I'll have to squeeze onto that list.

4,4*

كتاب رائع بل قطعة فنية بديعة
في هذه الرواية الجميلة يأخذنا الكاتب في رحلة طويلة عبر الزمن لنرى كيف أسهمت أوهام القومية العفنة و أهواء القادة السياسيين و جموحهم و تأخر الاصلاحات في الدولة العثمانية ، كيف شارك كل هذا في تهاوي جدران الامبراطورية العثمانية، و في القضاء على فسيفساء التعايش بين ابناء الملل و الاعراق المختلفة، و كيف أودى ذلك بحياة الالاف، و أتعس الالاف الاخرين من الذين لم يفقدوا حياتهم و لكنهم فقدوا أحبتهم أو ارضهم، أو تحطمت قلوبهم و أحلامهم أو انسانيتهم من ما لاقوه من أهوال و قسوة الحروب المتلاحقة.
نتتبع الشباب الذين قذفت بهم الحرب في أتونها و كيف خرجوا منها أشباه بشر، محطمي الارواح او مشوشي العقول.
و نرى كيف اقتلع الناس من ديارهم لتحقيق اوهام التجانس الديني او العرقي و كيف أدى ذلك الى تعاسة هؤلاء البشر حتى نهاية أعمارهم.
و نرى من حلموا لليالي طويلة باحلام القومية و هم يتجرعوا مرارة نتائج الحروب القومية.

و نشاهد أيضاً خبايا نفوسنا البشرية التي يكمن فيها الخير الى جوار الشر و كيف يمكن ان يختبأ الشر وراء الجمال و كيف يمكن ان يحولنا الانتقام الى مسوخ بشرية قد ترتكب من الفظائع مالم تفكر به مسبقاً.

كتاب بديع يستحق القراءة و ترجمة جميلة تستحق الشكر و التقدير و اختيار جميل من مدارات للنشر كما عودونا دائماً.

Спокойный мудрый голос, которого так не хватало последние годы, - я очень рад, что вернулся к нему, давно собирался наконец прочесть. Кроме того, сейчас самое время, потому что мы оказались в той географической точке, где завязывался и развязывался один из важных исторических и социальных узлов 20 века - греко-турецкий и, шире, балканский и средиземноморский. А важную его часть - обмен населения между Анатолией и Македонией, о котором идет речь в романе, - еще осмыслять и осмыслять, потому что актуальность таких геополитических решений не избыла себя и посейчас, через 100 лет. Поскольку это роман о людях, преданных даже не столько своей страной, сколько самой историей. О таких людях, как мы. Ну и о том, конечно, что любая организованная религия - зло.

...вот это важное наблюдение, например:
One day in Turkey they will call it “The Demographic Catastrophe,” because it is the Christians who know how to get everything done. Turks are soldiers and peasants and landowners, but Christians are merchants and craftsmen. Their loss will delay economic recovery for decades.
In Greece they call it “The Asia Minor Catastrophe.” Those who leave will forever feel that they have been arbitrarily thrown out of paradise. One and a half million of them arrive in Greece, causing the utmost difficulty for a government trying to accommodate and incorporate them. They bring with them their education, their sophistication, their talents, their nostalgia, and a music that will turn out to be rembetika. They also bring with them their absolute destitution and sense of injustice, and this will contribute perhaps more than anything else to the rise of communism in Greece, which will in turn lead to the Greek civil war.

...еще занимательный фактоид, который как-то слился у меня из памяти: в бессчастной греко-турецкой войне, приведшей к обмену населения, русские (т.е. совки) поддерживали Ататюрка (оружием - в обмен на его невмешательство в распространение советского влияния на Грузию), а вовсе и не греков. Потому любовь греков к россии выглядит еще загадочнее, конечно.

...ну а современная история городка, где мы сейчас живем, начинается за последней страницей романа, из которого постепенно исчезают и больше не возвращаются все, - и это, конечно, совсем другая книга. Греция в этой - скорее фигура умочания, место за полями карты, где водятся драконы.

Но вообще-то де Берньер - один из лучших британских прозаиков, совершенно любимый навсегда, пусть и евроскептик (зато филэллин). И этот его роман - чистейшее наслаждение.

Osmanlı’nın etnik çeşitliliğini ve uyum içindeki haytlarından başlayarak, savaş yıllarına, mübadelelere çarpıcı bir yaklaşım sunuyor. Çok severek okudum ve ufkumu çok yönlü olarak açtığını düşündüğüm bir kitap oldu. Tavsiye ederim...

Ughh. Beautiful. Rich. Colourful. Honest. Illustrates peculiarities of history through the stories of a former Ottoman town. Undoubtedly one of the best fiction books I’ve read (and best historical fiction book).

I was in Kayakoy (I believe the fictional town of Eskibace is based upon it) last summer had this book recommended to me by a local.

It's a sumptuous read, written through the eyes of various characters, all of whom are fascinating - and oh-so-human, with their foibles, prejudices and philosophies. The ghastly events taking place in the background inexorably take centre stage, shattering the lives of just about everyone we've met in the book.

4.5 Stars

Birds without Wings by Louis Bernieres.

A dense, mesmerising, harrowing and yet humorous novel that will bring out all emotions that a reader can experience but did not think possible in one story.

Set in the peaceful fictional village of Eskibahce in south west Turkey and home to Turkish Muslims and Greek Christians who have lived for centuries side by side and tolerate and enjoy for the most parts each other's traditions and religions. The author introduces us to a village of characters and when the war is declared and the outside world intruded the twin scourges of religion and nationalism lead to forced marches and massacres and the peaceful fabric of life is destroyed. Birds without wings is a personal and political story showing the costs of war.

"Where does it all begin? History has no beginnings, for everything that happens becomes the cause of pretext for what occurs afterwards, and this chain of cause and pretext stretches back to the Palaeolithic age, when the first Cain of one tribe murdered the first Cain of Another".,/I>

The story is based on a small fictional village in south-western Coastal Anatolia called Eskibahce, although fictional I believe the village is actually based upon Kayakoy a village near Fethiye the ruins which still exist today. Once a thriving Greek Village this town of over one thousand houses two churches, fourteen chapels and two schools was completely deserted in 1923 when the Greek inhabitants living throughout Turkey were deported to Greece by the Government in an exchange policy.


The destruction of the Ottoman empire in the First World War and its aftermath put and end to a beautiful tradition of religious and ethnic tolerance and the descriptions depicted by the author of the atrocities inflicted on women and children in this novel are very harrowing(one in particular will never leave my mind) but while it was difficult reading in places I only had to read about it............thousands of woman and children had to endure it. There is also wonderful humour though out the story and some laugh out loud moments that read like a breath of fresh air.
The writing, the characters, the setting and the history is all impeccably crafted. I did however have a hard time getting into the novel as I found the first 100 pages hard going and only for a friend had warned me about this I could easily have put this book aside and missed out on a wonderful read. I think the novel at 625 pages was quite a long read and perhaps could have been shortened as some of the chapters are overwritten and very descriptive. That aside I loved and enjoyed the novel very much and I would recommend this for lovers of history.