In his first novel since Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières creates a world, populates it with characters as real as o...
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Jan 14, 2008
Megan
rated it: 
I so wish that the editor had been a bit more stringent with this book so that more people would read it! Even adoring the book as I did, I found I would have preferred it with one or two fewer plot lines. It is an incredibly historically informational novel peopled with (a few too many) warmly flawed and incredibly real characters.
I think the author's ability to provide a variety of viewpoints (via the different Muslim, Catholic, Turkish and Greek characters we meet) on a time period that More...
I think the author's ability to provide a variety of viewpoints (via the different Muslim, Catholic, Turkish and Greek characters we meet) on a time period that More...
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Jan 31, 2012
Chrissie
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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?
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Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey More...
Read with:
Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey More...
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Feb 25, 2009
Laura
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I LOVED this book. It's a story of true friendships which are torn apart by superficial definitions of separateness. It covers the topics of beauty, birth, a parent's love, a brothers love, unrequited lovers, addiction, the reality of death of old age and the brutality of untimely death. This book tells the story of Ataturk and the Armenian forced migration in a balanced and objective yet intimate way. It tells the story of the unity of the Greeks and the Turks before Wilson's nationalism ha
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Jun 19, 2011
Pearl
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I loved this book. It's now on my list of all-time favorites.
The writing is lush and gorgeous and witty and empathetic. The many characters come alive and are very compelling. The setting is a little village in southwest Turkey, not too distant from Symrna (Izmir), and the time is the WW I period. The story is mostly told from the point of view of the various villagers and occasionally from the view of Mustafa Kemal (on his way to becoming Ataturk).
We get a fascinatin More...
The writing is lush and gorgeous and witty and empathetic. The many characters come alive and are very compelling. The setting is a little village in southwest Turkey, not too distant from Symrna (Izmir), and the time is the WW I period. The story is mostly told from the point of view of the various villagers and occasionally from the view of Mustafa Kemal (on his way to becoming Ataturk).
We get a fascinatin More...
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Oct 02, 2008
Rea
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Well I would like to put three and a half stars for this book.
This book is about the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the author simultaneously contrasts the happenings of the international political world with that of a small cast-away village where Greek Christians and Turkish Muslims lived side by side.
Being from Greece, you are 'taught' that the Ottoman Empire was an evil and repressive empire and hence why Greeks hate Turks and visa versa. What de Bernieres suc More...
This book is about the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the author simultaneously contrasts the happenings of the international political world with that of a small cast-away village where Greek Christians and Turkish Muslims lived side by side.
Being from Greece, you are 'taught' that the Ottoman Empire was an evil and repressive empire and hence why Greeks hate Turks and visa versa. What de Bernieres suc More...
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Feb 05, 2009
The ten years since the runaway success of De Berni_ăres' Corelli's Mandolin have provided ample time for reviewers to sharpen their pencils. But potshots at his new novel are scarce, at least on this side of the Atlantic. Critics applaud the author's continued liberties with point of view, but the large cast of characters obscures the narrative focus; many don't rise above one-note characterization. Other critics argue that the collective power of these voices, not the individual timbre, counts.
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Dec 13, 2008
Tamir
rated it:
This book breaks your heart, but in a good way. DeBernieres' has a beautiful, eloquent, lyrical style, the effect of which is augmented by the tragic nature of much of his content. He also imbues his story with much pathos and humor. By doing so, he avoids heavy-handedness.
Birds Without Wings is a marvelously ambitious book. It is a epic about conflict and coexistence between Muslim and Christian Turks, Kurds and Armenians, set over the course of decades.
The book i More...
Birds Without Wings is a marvelously ambitious book. It is a epic about conflict and coexistence between Muslim and Christian Turks, Kurds and Armenians, set over the course of decades.
The book i More...
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Nov 27, 2011
Carinya
rated it: 
It is necessary because of time constraints to begin this book review after reading 59 of a total of 95 chapters and none of the Epilogue.
As I am not a keen or knowledgeable student of History I quickly became lost and confused by the rich detailed descriptions of various ethnic and cultural groups within these middle eastern communities. Long foreign sounding character names also detracted from my comprehension of the total picture and left me wondering whether I needed to re-read several More...
As I am not a keen or knowledgeable student of History I quickly became lost and confused by the rich detailed descriptions of various ethnic and cultural groups within these middle eastern communities. Long foreign sounding character names also detracted from my comprehension of the total picture and left me wondering whether I needed to re-read several More...
Nov 15, 2011
Mark
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This book was recommended to me as the best book available on understanding 20th-century Turkey. It focuses on the first two decades of the 20th century--when the Ottoman Empire was breaking apart and Turkey is formed. Interesting mix of history and fiction--background scenarios are historical while the main characters are from a fictitious small village. Both engaging and ponderous to read. Book is series of narratives told by the different characters--appropriate for an oral culture. One (Mus
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Sep 23, 2011
Al
rated it:
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:
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Jul 29, 2011
This is a sprawling historical novel with all the strengths and weaknesses of the genre. Even the reader who races through books will have to pause occasionally, taking sips rather than gulps of the heady liquor that pours out of it. Reading "Snow" made me want to know more about Kemal Ataturk and about the expulsion of Greeks and Armenians from Turkey, and this book satisfies on that account. If one has seen Mel Gibson's star turn in "Gallipoli," Bernieres provides a mov
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Jun 21, 2011
Lynne
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This multi-faceted novel has many layers and themes and can be read in several different ways, not least as a prequel to de Bernieres' classic, 'Captain Correlli's Mandolin'. As with 'Correlli', this is a story of immense historical and emotional scope and features many different characters that demand our attention and sympathy. By not simply focussing on one main protagonist, the author better communicates the scale of the tragedy that befalls the inhabitants of the village and those others on
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Aug 09, 2010
Sarah
rated it:
Once again De Bernieres delivers a beautiful novel about, quite simply, humanity. As the world is poised for war, the innocently ignorant people of a small town in Anatolia are blissfully unaware, Christian and Muslim co-exist as neighbours as they had done previously for centuries.They are soon plunged into the greater world; their animals confiscated, their friends deported and their faiths questioned. De Bernieres excels at highlighting the loss, desperation, waste and grief of death, from te
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May 04, 2010
Nick
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This novel lacks the narrative drive of Captain Corelli's Mandolin (the one that was made into that awful movie starring Nicolas Cage), but it has the same extraordinarily beautiful turn of phrase that makes Bernieres' books such wonderful reading. Birds Without Wings is the story of a Turkish town through the first part of the 20th C and the wars that gradually dismembered the Ottoman Empire. The history is enlightening and the fiction heartbreaking as the endless cycle of revenge killings gr
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Jan 01, 2010
Mommalibrarian
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This was a very complex story with many characters developed in short chapters. The characters are mixed as is the time line but I did not find it too difficult to follow.
"Destiny caresses the few, but molests the many, and finally every sheep will hang by its own foot on the butcher's hook, just as every grain of wheat arrives at the millstone, no matter where it grew." p.6
The time period is end of the great European empires, the beginning of WWI, the beginni More...
"Destiny caresses the few, but molests the many, and finally every sheep will hang by its own foot on the butcher's hook, just as every grain of wheat arrives at the millstone, no matter where it grew." p.6
The time period is end of the great European empires, the beginning of WWI, the beginni More...
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Nov 15, 2009
Tony
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de Bernieres, Louis. BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS. (2004). ****. I somehow missed this novel when it came out, but, luckily, have managed to get it from the library. De Bernieres is a marvelously inventive writer, which you soon discover upon reading any of his novels. I have read three of his earlier ones, the most famous of which is “Corelli’s Mandolin.” Although part of a trilogy, it is a stand-alone novel that will both charm and impress you and remain long in your memory. In this novel, the
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Jun 28, 2009
Matthew
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This book shares much in common with the author's earlier masterpiece, "Corelli's Mandolin:" the fluid and often amusing prose, the deep compassion for his characters' struggles, and the satisfyingly righteous recounting of both the horror of war and the bravery of those who fight. It is, however, a sadder, more serious tale, describing the violent upheavals caused by nationalism and the first World War which upended the equable and tranquil mixed society of pre-war Turkey and caused w
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Apr 27, 2009
Murray
rated it:
This is one I probably will read again. It is not Captain Corelli mark II and perhaps suffered in my eyes a little because of that. However, it opens a vista on some history that perhaps people from northern Europe are not so well aware of. The story opens in a village in Anatolia, where people who considered themselves as Greek and Christian lived in some harmony with their Muslim Turkish neighbours. The arrival of Ataturk and also the nationalist movements amongst those Greeks seeking a 'Great
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Apr 20, 2009
Betita
rated it:
Esta foi uma leitura um bocadinho conturbada.
Em primeiro lugar fiquei logo assustada com as 685 páginas, depois com tantos personagens (com nomes estranhos) e com todos os termos utilizados pelo autor logo nas primeiras páginas
A história gira à volta dos habitantes de uma pacata aldeia, com os seus problemas cotidianos mas que se entreajudam entre sim em todas as situações até ao dia em que têem de voltar costas uns aos outros devido às suas crenças religiosas.
Muçulmanos e Cris More...
Em primeiro lugar fiquei logo assustada com as 685 páginas, depois com tantos personagens (com nomes estranhos) e com todos os termos utilizados pelo autor logo nas primeiras páginas
A história gira à volta dos habitantes de uma pacata aldeia, com os seus problemas cotidianos mas que se entreajudam entre sim em todas as situações até ao dia em que têem de voltar costas uns aos outros devido às suas crenças religiosas.
Muçulmanos e Cris More...
Aug 04, 2011
Bernieres weaves a beautiful story that rekindles hope that humanity is even capable of beauty and art.
What makes the book sublime is Bernieres' chilling indictment on the horribleness of war and its dark cold power to bastardize even the most angelic creatures and the most honourable persons. He aims at religion and nationalism in particular for its complicity in creating the horrible war torn areas of the world.
Bernieres attempts to reignite a hope in this world, in it diversity if only we can More...
What makes the book sublime is Bernieres' chilling indictment on the horribleness of war and its dark cold power to bastardize even the most angelic creatures and the most honourable persons. He aims at religion and nationalism in particular for its complicity in creating the horrible war torn areas of the world.
Bernieres attempts to reignite a hope in this world, in it diversity if only we can More...
Feb 14, 2009
Roy
rated it:
I read this book while on holiday around 3 years ago. It moved me greatly. De Bernieres builds his story beautifully, patiently describing the lives of Christians and Muslims coexisting peacefully in Western Anatolia, developing their characters vividly, intertwining their stories with a historical account of the conflict that was to have such an enormous impact on their lives. My dear grandmother was caught up in this conflict as an 18 year old girl. She managed to escape the fighting and was e
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Jun 21, 2010
Caitlin
rated it:
157 pgs in, I decided to quit. This book wasn't terrible, and I kept hoping that I would fall into it. But it kept me at the surface; everything about these first pages felt very superficial. The short chapters, some narratively linked (e.g. 12-15 "The Proof of Innocence" 1-4 or chapters 4,8, 18, 24 "I am Philothei" and the chapters about Mustafa Kemal), and some shorter, more independent stories (e.g. 19 "The Telltale Shoes"), might have offered a sense of gli
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Oct 08, 2011
Bibliophile
rated it:
I thought about giving this book an extra star because of the lovely descriptive writing, but in terms of plot and characterization, I would actually rate this quite low. The plot is simply a retelling of the "ethnic cleansing" of Greek-speaking Muslims and Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians that occurred in Greece and Turkey after World War I, and the characters never felt like more than mouthpieces for the author's outrage at the suffering inflicted on thousands of completely inn
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Apr 17, 2011
El
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This was a book I read without any previous knowledge of the story, other than what my friend Marieke told me which was just her impression of the book. I agree with much of what she said, except I rarely cry while I read, and this was no exception; though the story did touch me immensely in parts. In addition to knowing little of the actual story before reading it, I admit to knowing little of the events within the story - the Battle of Gallipoli, for example. I must have missed those days t
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Jan 02, 2012
Charles
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A wonderful warm compassionate humorous,yet disturbing and critical view of man's inhumanity towards men of other ethnic religious linguistic persuasions, or other distinguishing features. Set in SW Anatolia it describes the lives of a small village of Ottoman Turks, Greeks, and Armenians caught up in the Balkan wars that preceded WW1&in that war. The tolerant cosmopolitan village is eviscerated by the expulsion of its Armenians who are murdered by the Moslems, and later by the expulsion of the
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Sep 06, 2011
Diana
rated it: 
Although I enjoyed the historical context of this novel there is unrelenting sexism in this book which I found extremely off-putting. Each female character is defined solely by the way that she looks and/or her relationship with her husband. Philothei is ridiculously two-dimensional, not only the men in the town but her best friend and even she herself can find no other quality in her other than her good looks. The male characters, without exception, feel no shame in their feelings of superiori
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Apr 19, 2009
Meg
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This is an engaging history of the the founding of the Republic of Turkey, beginning with the events leading up to WWI. The story is mingled between a straightforward biography of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the winding narratives of a group of Turkish villagers. The story explains the political atmosphere that led to the events alongside their results as witnessed by the village. During the war for independence, the story becomes a little war-heavy, as the dwindling population of the village m
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May 15, 2011
Dani
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I loved this book, but it was a book that took much effort to read. If it hadn't been so well written I do not think I could have finished it. My only trouble was with the war and the political intrigue was hard for me to follow. Possibly because I know so little about this time period and country. That aside, the characters were so well developed and there were so many parts of the story that I had to underline because I identified with them so directly, so many quotes and stories that just
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Jul 16, 2010
Jgrace
rated it:
Birds Without Wings – Louis de Bernieres –
5 stars
I’ve recently returned from the small town of Eskibache in Turkey as it was early in the last century. I’m trying to return to my real life, but Eskibache and its many colorful inhabitants are alive and very active in my mind. Eskibache is a special place where Muslims and Christians live peacefully together, mingling language and customs and frequently intermarrying. The town has a learned Imam, a Greek orthodox priest and Rustem Bey More...
5 stars
I’ve recently returned from the small town of Eskibache in Turkey as it was early in the last century. I’m trying to return to my real life, but Eskibache and its many colorful inhabitants are alive and very active in my mind. Eskibache is a special place where Muslims and Christians live peacefully together, mingling language and customs and frequently intermarrying. The town has a learned Imam, a Greek orthodox priest and Rustem Bey More...
