**Title: The Beauty and Accuracy of Historical Writing**

In the realm of literature, beautifully written and historically accurate works hold a special allure. They transport us to different eras, allowing us to witness the events and experiences of the past as if they were unfolding before our eyes.

Such writings require a great deal of research and attention to detail. The author must painstakingly comb through historical records, accounts, and artifacts to ensure that every fact and figure is correct. This not only adds credibility to the work but also provides a more authentic and immersive experience for the reader.

At the same time, the writing itself must be beautiful and engaging. The author must use language in a way that brings the past to life, creating vivid images and emotions in the reader's mind. This can involve using descriptive language, powerful metaphors, and engaging dialogue.

When these two elements - historical accuracy and beautiful writing - come together, the result is a work of art that can educate, inspire, and delight. It allows us to connect with our past in a meaningful way and gain a deeper understanding of the world we live in today. So, the next time you pick up a historical novel or non-fiction work, take a moment to appreciate the beauty and accuracy that went into creating it.

ETA on completion: Chrissie, stop saying you love the book. Explain why! Everything explained below remains true. Other books are emotionally captivating, intellectually interesting, filled with humor and sorrow. But what makes this one different for me? It is that this book has a powerful message. It looks at people and life and shouts out loud and clear how stupid we human beings can be, yet also how wonderful we are! Does that make sense to you? Do you see life in the same 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.

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Few books have had such a profound emotional impact on me.

I know now that this book will receive five stars, even though I have only read about half of it.

Don't just read this book; listen to it. The narrator of the audiobook is John Lee. I initially bought the paperback. Then I went and purchased the audiobook at Audible for two credits. I have no regrets about this indulgence. This is truly a winner. I am unable to separate the written book from the narration. As a whole, it is simply……perfect!

On an intellectual level, it teaches. It educates about life in a small village near Izmir, Turkey – which was called Smyrna when the novel is set, in the early 1900s. The portrayal of village life, teeming with Greeks and Turks, Christians and Muslims, is both educational and entertaining. There are Armenians as well. So many different people, cultures, and traditions – and they all blended and lived in harmony. Of course, this harmony was sometimes disrupted by village disputes, love affairs, pranks, and numerous other everyday experiences. On the intellectual level, you also learn about Attaturk and the battles of World War I. You don't just learn; you are placed in the trenches along with the men.

How dull this could all be. But you see, this book is never dull. Each village character, and even Attaturk, becomes a close companion. This is because every sentence emotionally draws you in. There is satirical humor. What humor! You will find yourself laughing at the worst of the war scenes…… I almost feel embarrassed to admit this. The author makes you laugh at the most horrific moments, and then he turns serious and elucidates a profound observation. The vocabulary is wonderful! And now someone has died. I am in tears. I laugh, I cry, I think, and I learn.

I am emotionally captivated time and time again.

I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep track of the diverse characters. However, this has proven to be no problem. The same characters remain from start to finish.

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, irony, laughter, and profound philosophizing are all present in one scene. What writing! What narrating! Please listen to this book. If you have never tried audiobooks, start here. You will be hooked. I am still new to audiobooks. This is a whole new world opening up to me. I want to share this experience with you. Please, listen to this book. If the audio format is not accessible, then read it!

There is not one thing I can criticize in this book.

This, for me, is one of those rare and treasured reads, a book that will stay with me forever.

It tells the story of a small village in Smyrna starting about 1900, before it became Turkey. The narrative is divided into many short chapters, mostly told in the third person. However, sprinkled throughout are chapters from the perspectives of several villagers. Some we meet as children, while others recount events from their young lives as mature adults.

I loved this book because I loved the people who inhabited it. The author made me feel as if I knew them intimately. More than that, he made me feel he knew me. This was my first encounter with Louis de Bernieres, but it surely won't be my last.

I'm no history buff, so the historical description initially scared me off a little. I wasn't certain if I'd understand it. But then I glanced at the first page, and the writing immediately pulled me in. Here's the start of the second paragraph:

\\n  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, and certainly most of us were more amusing when we were young. It seems that age folds the heart in on itself. Some of us walk detached, dreaming on the past, and some of us realize that we have lost the trick of standing in the sun. \\n

How could you not read a book that begins with such wisdom, truth, and eloquence? I simply couldn't resist. This is a wise book, full of humor. You'll need that humor because there's also great tragedy here. The characters feel incredibly real. It's about life in all its aspects – the good, the bad, and the ugly. We get to know the village and its people, their customs, superstitions, and traditions. It's about strength, courage, beauty, and friendship. It's about community and family, and the far-reaching, often devastating effects of war.

I began with a library copy but bought the book halfway through because I knew I'd want to reread it and be able to lend it out. I'd also highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by John Lee. He's a gifted narrator. His inflections and delivery, in my opinion, are perfect for the prevailing tongue-in-cheek tone of the story.

I feel as if I should have taken notes while reading because I don't think I'm doing this book justice in my description. I really want to revisit it in a few years, once I have a better understanding of WWI. You don't actually need the historical background to enjoy the book. Trust me, I had almost none. However, I already want to reread it. Next time, with the background knowledge, I know I'll appreciate it even more.

I also want to thank my good friend Chrissie for encouraging me to read this, despite my unfamiliarity with the history. What a tremendous book. I feel that it has been stitched into my soul, a rare treasure.

That such a place existed and the way it was lost is truly heartbreaking.

This is a story that delves into the intricate and complex cultural bag known as the Ottoman Empire and its evolution into modern-day Turkey.

Mr. Bernieres has beautifully told this revealing story. However, I found myself getting bogged down midway through during the war scenes.

Nonetheless, once I passed that point, it became a race to the end.

Now, after this epic story, I'm looking forward to an easy and mindless read to unwind.

It's interesting how this book has taken me on such a journey through history and emotions.

The detailed descriptions and engaging narrative have made it a memorable read, despite the challenges I faced along the way.

I'm sure it will stay with me for a long time.

I have an intense love for this book. It has now firmly established itself on my list of all-time favorites.

The writing within its pages is truly a wonder. It is lush, painting vivid pictures in the reader's mind. It is gorgeous, with words that seem to dance off the page. It is witty, bringing a smile to one's face with its clever turns of phrase. And it is empathetic, making the reader truly understand and feel for the characters.

The many characters in the book come alive in the most remarkable way. They are so compelling that one cannot help but become invested in their stories. The setting is a charming little village in southwest Turkey, not too far from Symrna (Izmir). The time period is that of WW I, a time of great upheaval and change.

The story is told from the perspectives of the various villagers, giving us a fascinating insight into their lives. Occasionally, it is also told from the view of Mustafa Kemal (on his way to becoming Ataturk). We get to see Turkish village life during this period, a time when Turks (then called Ottomans), Armenians, and Greeks lived together mostly peacefully and respectfully.

However, WW I changed everything. The war was not only horrible and brutal but its reasons were not understood by most of the villagers. It had a profound impact on their lives. Their sons were killed, maimed, or scarred for life. Friends and neighbors were lost forever as populations were evacuated or exchanged. This book truly brings to life the Greek influence that can still be seen in Turkey today.

In conclusion, I firmly believe that this book is a masterpiece. It is a work of art that will stay with you long after you have turned the last page.

Corelli's Mandolin is perhaps de Bernières' most renowned or popular novel. However, among those I've read, it is my least favorite. My recollection is that it lacks the complexity of writing compared to his South American novels. I adored this novel and its return to the complexity that I favor. Of course, it's not just about the writing. Towards the end of the novel, I considered it as another juxtaposition of war and peace. Certainly not Tolstoy's novel, but the contrast between war and peace makes for a great theme, and the author handles it well here.

The "peace" characters, which I might add are well-developed, are set in a small town on the western edge of the Ottoman Empire before World War I. It's a small town of mixed ethnicity where people coexist and respect one another. They are mostly Muslims and Christians with Turk and Greek ancestry. The families have intermarried over many generations, and there is no real distinction between Turk and Greek, and Greek is no longer spoken. However, an interesting side plot is that the Christian teacher is Greek, 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'm not a student of The Great War, but my fascination with it persists. I learned so much from this novel! For me, the novel was more than that. I think I've never flagged so many lines in a novel as I did with this one. I've played backgammon online every day for years. (My brother taught me so that we could have regular contact even though we lived 2000 miles apart.) Backgammon was created thousands of years ago somewhere in the lands that eventually became the Ottoman Empire. I began to flag the references, most along 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. However, there are two that de Bernières used to explain his title. The second one is in the last few pages of the novel and makes the most sense in that context. 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've said before that I have a fictitious top-ten list of books. It's a crowded list, and probably fluid below the top three or four. Today, this novel is on the list. Maybe one day I'll be fortunate enough to read another that I'll have to squeeze onto that list.

No man is an island, entirely of itself. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. This profound statement by John Donne makes us reflect on our interconnectedness.

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde

To destroy, when is it a duty, a right, or a sin? What drives one to violate another's body and spirit? Why did Cain pick up the stone? What convinces someone that the death of thousands would make the world better? And conversely, who, what, and when should we save? Iskander the Potter believes it's not the individual's fault but rather "the great world." But isn't "the great world" just a combination of countless small worlds that collide and intertwine, shaping the big picture? The world is shaped by the people in it, by their personal worlds. So, yes, everyone is responsible for their actions. However, no one is truly alone. Inevitably, we are influenced by others and events. How can one stay moral in an immoral world, especially when survival seems to demand otherwise?

"But we are always confined to earth, no matter how much we climb to the high places and flap our arms. Because we cannot fly, we are condemned to do things that do not agree with us. Because we have no wings we are pushed into struggles and abominations that we did not seek, and then the years go by, the mountains are levelled, the valleys rise, the rivers are blocked by sand and the cliffs fall into the sea"

Where does the truth lie? What do we risk losing in the name of our beliefs or those of others? When do we follow the crowd, and when do we sacrifice ourselves? How much are we willing to sacrifice to preserve ourselves? Is survival worth any cost? Can anyone truly know their limits until it's too late?

"We are forgetting how to look at others and see ourselves"

It is said that he who saves one saves the whole world. Then does he who destroys one destroy the whole world? Since we are all part of the world, everything we do, regardless of its nature, comes back to us. I believe there are no two people completely different or alike. What we do to others, we also do to ourselves because we are all connected. I am both the saint and the sinner, the best and the worst, everyone and everything. I am the whole world, and yet, I am just me. How do we choose between ourselves and the rest of the world? And, as if that weren't enough, how do we cope with the multiple sides of our personalities? Are we all just wingless birds, ruled by "the great world," desperately aiming for the sky, knowing we'll never reach it? Or are we mighty eagles, ready to adapt and rule as we please?

Who are the victims, and who are the predators? Are we shaped by the world we live in, or do we shape it and bear the responsibility for its nature? I believe both are true. War brings out the best and worst in people, but in the end, we are all human. And, as said in "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper."

"Don't pity the eagle
Who can climb the sky and fly
But for the little wingless bird
Cry.

Fire will be found by
Birds that fly too high
And all his feathers burn
And he'll fall down and die.

What bird has two nests
Only one shall remain
And his wings burn
And he'll not fly again.

What if I make a high nest
But the branch sinks low?
They will take my little bird
And I will die of woe.

Oh my little bird
Who will chase you?
Who will put you in a cage
And tenderly embrace you?

It's not possible to light a
Candle that doesn't drip,
And it's not possible to love
And never weep."



Read count: 1

Published in 2004, Birds Without Wings is an extensive historical saga.

It is set in Anatolia during the early 20th century, a time of great upheaval with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of modern Türkiye.

The novel vividly depicts the devastating impact of nationalism on a small village community. Here, Muslims, Christians, and various ethnic groups had coexisted peacefully for years.

The storyline combines fictional characters with historical figures.

The structure features multiple viewpoint characters from different religions, nationalities, and ethnicities. There is a parallel historical narrative that follows Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's ascent to power, along with the tales of these fictional individuals.

One of the main narratives is the love story between Ibrahim, a Muslim Turk, and Philothei, a Greek Christian, who have known each other since childhood. The writing is richly descriptive and incorporates a few local folk tales and myths.

The novel offers insights into significant historical events such as World War I (1914 - 1918), the Armenian forced deportation and genocide (1915 - 1916), and the Greek/Turkish population exchange of 1923. It serves as both a critique of extremism and a celebration of cultural diversity. It is a book that examines how large-scale historical forces influence individual lives, zooming in and out. In today's world, with the rise in nationalism, religious conflicts, and forced migrations in many parts, it is highly relevant.

This book should come with a solemn warning. It has the power to sadden you to an extent that is almost beyond comprehension. Set in a charming coastal village at the tail end of the Ottoman Empire, in what is now modern-day Turkey, it delves deep into the intertwined fortunes and misfortunes of a diverse cast of characters.

These characters, both Christians and Muslims, have coexisted peacefully for generations. They would have continued to do so, had it not been for the virulent upsurge of nationalism in the "great world" surrounding them. As the author persuasively argues, the entire village is soon caught up in the maelstrom of wars and civil wars that erupt at the dawn of the last century, along with the lawlessness and ethnic cleansing that accompany such turmoil.

Spanning over 550 pages, it is a substantial novel. Its numerous stories are told in a rich tapestry of voices and at a leisurely, almost meditative pace. Richly detailed, it paints a broad and vivid canvas, alternating between the minutiae of village life and accounts of political movements abroad. In particular, it follows the career and ambitions of the man who would become Atatürk, the first leader of modern Turkey.

Readers may take issue with de Bernière's accounts of certain historical events, such as the Armenian genocide. However, his overall argument remains unwavering: that nationalism has been a scourge, bringing untold misery and suffering to millions and continuing to do so. While life for the Ottoman villagers is not without its share of cruelties and injustices, it pales in comparison to the horrors that befall them as the nation-state of Turkey is born. These include the agonies of trench warfare, the forced marches of entire populations, and the unspeakable brutalities endured by noncombatants caught in the crossfire of military conquest.

Finally, by the conclusion of the novel, the reader is left with an almost inexpressible sense of sadness, loss, and waste. Its redeeming feature is undoubtedly de Bernière's masterful use of language, his gift for storytelling, and his attitude towards his characters, which combines a loving embrace with a touch of irony. He gives them what the "great world" has failed to provide - a respectful concern for their well-being and a hope that they will be remembered and not forgotten. Readers may also find Orhan Pamuk's novel "Snow" to be an enlightening read.

I initially considered awarding this book an additional star due to its charming descriptive writing. However, when it comes to the plot and characterization, my rating would actually be quite low.

The plot merely retells the "ethnic cleansing" of Greek-speaking Muslims and Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians that took place in Greece and Turkey after World War I. The characters never seemed to be more than mouthpieces for the author's indignation at the suffering endured by thousands of completely innocent individuals who were compelled to leave their homes and journey to a foreign land simply because of their religious affiliation. None of the characters appeared particularly three-dimensional, and the most vivid memory I have of the novel is actually the descriptions of the small village on the coast of Anatolia, which sounds delightful.

The author also seems to have a political agenda that I continuously encountered. Although he doesn't deny that the Turkish authorities and those working for them committed atrocities, his descriptions of the atrocities committed by the Greeks are far more vivid. Then he turns around and states something like "the Turks did the same things when they got into power."

Furthermore, he seems to strongly suggest that the Armenians brought their genocide upon themselves by "treacherously" assisting the Russians in World War I. I'm quite certain that there were massive massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1895-1897, long before World War I, during the same period that the author seems to view as a golden age of multicultural and multiethnic tolerance. (There were at least tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Armenians murdered and tortured during this time, so I respectfully question this supposed tolerance that was only disrupted by the Young Turks and their revolution. I believe it's a misleadingly rosy perspective of the Ottoman Empire during its period of slow decline.) Moreover, the accusations of treachery during wartime only applied to a small portion of the Armenian population and do not explain why thousands of people who had nothing to do with the Russians were also deported, raped, tortured, and murdered. By not mentioning the earlier massacres - about which Barry Unsworth wrote an excellent historical novel called The Rage of the Vulture - de Bernieres fails to provide any context for why the Armenians already felt little loyalty to the Ottoman Empire that had treated them so callously. This truly turned me off the novel! (De Bernieres also implies that the Armenians under Russian command did the same things to the Kurds who had been so responsible for murdering Armenians as if everyone was equally culpable, and I'm not entirely convinced that's actually true.)

All in all, it was a very unsatisfying read and not the amazing follow-up to Corelli's Mandolin that I had been hoping for.

This was an incredibly long book! I was truly eager to finish it and be done with it.

The subject matter itself wasn't bad. It centered around the last days of the Ottoman Empire, specifically focusing on a small village along the Aegean coast in southwestern Turkey that had a large Greek population. It also recounted the story of Mustafa Kemal's rise.

However, the way the story was executed was awful. It was told in vignettes, with short chapters narrated by different characters. This was the author's way of presenting a diverse range of experiences, such as villager vs. agha, Turkish (Muslim) vs. minority Greek and Armenian (Christian), male vs. female, and young vs. old.

Some characters appeared throughout the book, while others only showed up once or twice to tell their side of the story and then disappeared. Sadly, some of the characters' stories seemed to drag on and on, bordering on insignificance just to fill the pages and make the characters say something.

I felt that this tactic was used to make us spend a lot of time with certain characters and then try to manipulate us into caring for them. But the characters were mostly one-dimensional and uninteresting, so I wasn't engaged.

Additionally, the story is set in a very tumultuous time in history. The Ottoman Empire was falling apart, there was a war between Greece and Turkey, and a lot of hate crimes were being committed between different ethnic and religious groups. Unfortunately, I didn't think the author handled this aspect very well.

He went into graphic detail about how the Greeks tortured the Turkish people and then simply ended the paragraph by saying that the Turkish people did the same to the Greeks. The scene of the Armenian death march and how Rustem Bey saved the day seemed completely unbelievable and, in my opinion, trivialized the suffering and injustice endured by the Armenian people.

There are also several reviewers who have pointed out that the village Eskibahce couldn't have been Turkish-speaking. In fact, many of the villages along the Aegean coast spoke Greek, which the author completely denies in this novel. What a shame. It's a very sensitive subject, and the author failed to give us a well-written, well-researched story of that era.

I only enjoyed reading this story because it was set in a time and place that I wanted to learn more about. The village is called Eskibahce and is inspired by the ghost village outside of Fethiye called Kayakoy. War and the forced migration of Muslim and Christian people between Greece and Turkey have left this village abandoned.

I've heard that the relationship between these two countries is very complicated, but I didn't know that in 1923 they came up with the horrific idea of uprooting and moving people around simply because of their faith. The first few chapters on Mustafa Kemal were fascinating. However, it's too bad that the later chapters on him started to sound like a history book and felt out of place compared to the rest of the novel.

I do have one question though. At the beginning of the book, there's this ceremony where Polyxeni wants to show the rest of the village that her dead mother was innocent. They dig up her grave and look at her bones. If anyone can please tell me what that's all about?

The rumbling sound on the horizon预示着一场由巨著引发的热潮即将到来，它们将在铺天盖地的宣传中登场。可怜那些下个月将新书推向这股洪流的二线作家们。就像好莱坞在感恩节周末的兴衰一样，出版商们越来越多地将他们的大型文学小说集中在秋季出版，这种自我毁灭的趋势肯定会让这个国家日益减少的读者群体（以及报纸的图书板块）应接不暇。正如加尔文·特里林所观察到的，如果一本书的平均保质期介于牛奶和酸奶之间，那么我们即将看到一些重大的“变质”。

这将是一件憾事，因为从第一本小说来看，这个季节似乎特别好。路易斯·德·贝尔尼埃的《没有翅膀的鸟儿》是一部关于奥斯曼帝国解体的深刻而有益的作品。在我们这个自信的国家建设时代，它既具有异国情调的遥远感，又具有悲剧性的相关性。

正如他在畅销书《科雷利的曼陀林》（1994年）中所做的那样，德·贝尔尼埃将他对历史复杂的拜占庭式的审视扎根于一个小镇的生活中。几代人以来，基督徒和穆斯林在埃斯基巴希和谐地生活着，这是一个虚构的沿海村庄，坐落在我们现在所称的土耳其的山坡上。小说于1900年开篇，正值政治和社会灾难即将来临之际，而这些灾难是没有人能够想象得到的，尤其是这些淳朴的人们，他们的生活与1500年的共同点比与1950年的还要多。

他们一个接一个地讲述自己的故事——简短而简单的场景，逐渐在世界历史的坚硬物质上刻下新的层面。“我们这里流了太多的血，”陶工伊斯坎德尔在第一段中说，但当他和他的邻居们描述他们生活中的日常欢乐和考验时，很容易忽略这个警告，仿佛这些是奥斯曼版的加里森·凯勒的即兴演奏。

有年轻的菲洛塞，一个美丽的基督教女孩，她必须戴着面纱以平息镇上的争吵。还有她的未婚夫易卜拉欣，他可以“模仿山羊在各种心态下的愚蠢评论”。卡拉塔武克和穆罕默德奇克在山间玩耍，不停地吹着他们的鸟哨，挥舞着手臂。骄傲的基督教牧师接受“穆斯林的供奉，他们急于通过支持两头骆驼来与上帝对冲赌注”。阿里·斯诺布林格和他哮喘的驴子住在一棵树的树干里。而亚美尼亚药剂师莱文则亲切地帮助曾经在街上袭击过他的穆斯林醉汉。

这些故事常常很迷人，甚至很滑稽，但它们很快就不得不面对令人震惊的暴力场景。“宗教最大的诅咒之一，”德·贝尔尼埃写道，“就是只需要在衬衫布料上轻轻一扭刀尖，就能把彼此相爱的邻居变成 bitter enemies。”

这种扭曲使父亲与女儿对立，丈夫与妻子对立，在一个又一个令人难以忘怀的章节中，将情感的纽带一一割断。通过对这个普世社区的描绘，德·贝尔尼埃暗示，这些家庭暴力的爆发——尽管它们是悲剧性的，由骄傲和宗教绝对主义所驱动——可以通过彼此熟悉的理性人的基本善意来控制和最小化。

但《没有翅膀的鸟儿》保持着双重视野。一只眼睛专注于村庄，另一只眼睛则看到各国愚蠢地滑向第一次世界大战。在小埃斯基巴希的生活场景中，德·贝尔尼埃插入了奥斯曼帝国解体和现代土耳其创始人穆斯塔法·凯末尔混乱崛起的血腥快照。他带着嘲讽的厌恶，快速地讲述了革命和反革命、大屠杀和驱逐、欧洲列强的怯懦干涉和他们灾难性的被动，以及复仇镜子中不断反映出的暴行。

这个复杂时期的快速交错潮流常常难以跟上，但德·贝尔尼埃的论点却非常清晰：“历史，”他写道，“最终不过是以伟大思想的名义用砍碎的肉体建造起来的一座可悲的大厦。”

当然，最终，默默无闻再也无法保护埃斯基巴希。那些对这个脆弱小镇一无所知的狂热分子的疯狂要求如雨点般落在它身上，加剧了这些人几个世纪以来一直设法控制的宗派冲突。我们一次又一次地看到，虚荣的领导人的鲁莽行为如何像那只引发远方飓风的著名蝴蝶的翅膀扇动一样发挥作用。朋友与朋友对立，邻居与邻居对立，总是违背他们的真实意愿。德·贝尔尼埃以他一贯明智的视角指出：“民族主义、乌托邦主义和宗教绝对主义这三重传染病一起冒泡，变成一种腐蚀一个种族道德金属的酸。”

卡拉塔武克，那个曾经和他的基督教朋友快乐玩耍的穆斯林男孩之一，带着我们走进了战壕战争的硝烟中，那里充满了可怕的闹剧和令人震惊的同情时刻。他对圣战的炽热信仰被他所目睹和犯下的无意义的恐怖慢慢扼杀。“只有像我这样的人，”他写道，“才会想知道为什么上帝不做一个好的奇迹，让世界瞬间变得完美。”

这部小说有太多值得注意的地方，从它厚重的历史到它强大的传奇故事。在这个家庭生活和国际政治的大集市中，“没有翅膀的鸟儿”这个苦乐参半的隐喻变得越来越深刻和丰富。埃斯基巴希的人们有着远大的抱负，但和我们所有人一样，他们必须坚定地生活在地上，被迫相互应对和历史的地震。这部关于边界悲剧的史诗很可能会跨越所有的边界，感动各地的读者，因为它描述了按照我们的梦想重塑遥远地方的惨痛代价。

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0824/p15s01-bogn.html