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Louis de Bernieres's last novel, "Corelli's Mandolin," was met with the highest praise: "Behind every page," said Richard Russo, "we sense its author's intelligence, wit, heart, imagination, and wisdom. This is a great book." A. S. Byatt placed the author in "the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh." Now, de Bernieres gives us his long-awaited new novel. Huge, resonant, lyrical, filled with humor and pathos, a novel about the political and personal costs of war, and of love-between men and women, between friends, between those who are driven to be enemies.
It is the story of a small coastal town in South West Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire told in the richly varied voices of the people-Christians and Muslims of Turkish and Greek and Armenian descent-whose lives are rooted there, intertwined for untold years. There is Iskander, the potter and local font of proverbial wisdom; Karatavuk-Iskander's son-and Mehmetcik, childhood friends whose playground stretches across the hills above the town, where Mehmetcik teaches the illiterate Karatavuk to write Turkish in Greek letters. There are Father Kristoforos and Abdulhamid Hodja, holy men of different faiths who greet each other as "Infidel Efendi"; Rustem Bey, the landlord and protector of the town, whose wife is stoned for the sin of adultery. There is a man known as "the Dog" because of his hideous aspect, who lives among the Lycian tombs; and another known as "the Blasphemer," who wanders the town cursing God and all of his representatives of all faiths. And there is Philothei, the Christian girl of legendary beauty, courted from infancy by Ibrahim the goatherd-a great love that culminates in tragedyand madness. But "Birds Without Wings" is also the story of Mustafa Kemal, whose military genius will lead him to victory against the invading Western European forces of the Great War and a reshaping of the whole region.
When the young men of the town are conscripted, we follow Karatavuk to Gallipoli, where the intimate brutality of battle robs him of all innocence. And in the town he left behind, we see how the twin scourges of fanatical religion and nationalism unleashed by the war quickly, and irreversibly, destroy the fabric of centuries-old peace.
Epic in its narrative sweep-steeped in historical fact-yet profoundly humane and dazzlingly evocative in its emotional and sensual detail, "Birds Without Wings" is a triumph.
--front flap
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Previews available in: English German Dutch
Subjects
Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, History, Social conditions, Fiction, Fathers and sons, Relations, Christianity, Soldiers, City and town life, Islam, interfaith relations, World War, 1914-1918 in fiction, Fathers and sons in fiction, City and town life in fiction, Islam in fiction, Turkey in fiction, Soldiers in fiction, World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey -- Fiction., World War, 1914-1918, Large type books, Fiction, historical, Fiction, religious, Fiction, war & military, Fathers and sons, fiction, World war, 1914-1918, fiction, Turkey, fiction, Fiction, historical, general, Romans, nouvelles, Christianisme, Vie urbaine, Pères et fils, Bevölkerung, Feindschaft, Griechisch-Türkischer Krieg, KleinstadtPeople
Karatavuk, Iskander, Philothei, Ibrahim, Musafa Kemal, Abdulhamid Hodja, Ayse, Charitos, Drosoula, Leyla, Mehmetçik, Polyxeni, Rustem BeyPlaces
Turkey, Gallipoli Peninsula, South West AnatoliaShowing 9 featured editions. View all 26 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Birds Without Wings
2016?, Vintage Books
Paperback
in English
- printing (15)
0099478986 9780099478980
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2
Birds Without Wings
2009?, Vintage Books
Paperback
in English
- printing (18)
0099478986 9780099478980
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3
Traum aus Stein und Federn
2006-06, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag
paperback
in German
- [1. Auflage]
3596166489 9783596166480
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4 |
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5
Birds Without Wings
2004, Alfred A. Knopf
Hardcover
in English
- 1st American ed.
1400043417 9781400043415
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6
Birds Without Wings
2004, Secker & Warburg
Paperback
in English
- printing (1)
0436205513 9780436205514
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7
Birds Without Wings
2004, Random House Large Print
Hardcover
in English
- 1st large print ed. (1)
0375434348 9780375434341
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8
Vogels zonder vleugels
2004-10, De Arbeiderspers
paperback
in Dutch
- Tweede druk
9029504633 9789029504638
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9
Birds Without Wings
2004, A.A. Knopf Canada
Hardcover
in English
- 1st ed. (2)
0676976948 9780676976946
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Book Details
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Map on lining papers.
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Work Description
Birds Without Wings is a novel by Louis de Bernières, written in 2004. Narrated by various characters, it tells the tragic love story of Philothei and Ibrahim. It also chronicles the rise of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the 'Father of the Turkish Nation'. The overarching theme of the story covers the impact of religious intolerance, over-zealous nationalism, and the war that often results. The characters are unwittingly caught up in historical tides outside of their control.
The book's title is taken from a saying by one of the characters, Iskander the Potter, "Man is a bird without wings, and a bird is a man without sorrows." The book includes a vivid and detailed description of the horrors of life in the trenches during World War I. Some of the characters are also present in the author's earlier novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
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