Birds Without Wings (edition 2005)

Read this book last year and absolutely loved it. You can read my review of it over at my blog (contains spoilers): http://www.rulethewaves.net/blog/?p=1598 ( )

The writing is on par with Corelli's Mandolin, but overall I think this story is not quite as powerful as that one.

A buzz of animal noises began to stir in the crowd, and an ugliness spiralled up in it, the evil that emanates as if from nowhere when people are permitted to act basely in a righteous cause. (93)

[She:] reflected that it was hardly easy to be married to such a good man, because there was too much of a difference between "good" and "sensible," and a sensible man does not waste his time being considerate to tortoises... (113)

[H:]istory...is finally nothing but a sorry edifice constructed from the hacked flesh in the name of great ideas. (120)

"Does anyone know a story that isn't filthy?...I ask just out of curiosity, and not with much hope." (126)

[T:]he primary epiphenomena of any religion's foundation are the production and flourishment of hypocrisy, megalomania and psychopathy, and the first casualties of a religion's establishment are the intentions of its founder. (143)

...and no one with any sense pisses off the Turks, because the one thing the Turks are very good at is overreacting when pissed off. (451)

It is often useless to plan for things, even when you know exactly what you are doing. The present is confounded by the future, the future is confounded by the future beyond it, and the memories bubble up in disorder, and the heart is unpredictable. (550) ( )

Tracing the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of the modern republic of Turkey, this novel alternates the first and third person narratives of a range of characters from the fictional town of Eskibahçe (meaning Garden of Eden) in southwest Turkey with an account of the life of Mustafa Kemal, later Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first leader of modern Turkey.

At the turn of the 20th century, the inhabitants of Eskibahçe comprise Muslim Turks, Christians of Greek origin and Armenians. They live together in relative harmony, forming friendships and inter-marrying. Both Christians and Muslims hedge their bets somewhat, with Muslims asking their Christian friends to offer prayers of intercession and Christians having a profound respect for the local imam. The lives of the inhabitants of Eskibahçe are torn apart by World War I and Turkey’s subsequent war with Greece, together with the Armenian genocide and the forced exile of Turkish Christians to Greece and of Muslim Greeks to Turkey.

In beautiful and accessible prose, de Bernières creates a strong sense of time and place. I found the chapters dealing with the Gallipoli campaign particularly powerful. The story of this WWI campaign is well-known to Australians and New Zealanders, who commemorate the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 as a national day to honour those who have served their country in time of war. It was extremely moving to read an account of the campaign – including an account of the fellowship and respect which grew between the Turkish and the Australian and New Zealand soldiers – from a Turkish point of view. The account of the forced exodus of Armenians in 1915 (and the subsequent Armenian genocide, which in terms of the novel occurs “off-stage”) and that of the expulsion of Greeks from Turkey and of Muslims from Greece after the signing of the “Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations” in 1923 are also powerful and moving.

It took me a while to become completely engaged with the characters and the narrative. This is a long novel and de Bernières introduces his characters and builds tension slowly. While there is plenty of humour – a lot of it sardonic - the work is a serious indictment of extreme nationalism, of religious dogma and of war and its atrocities. However, it also explores human resilience and the type of love and friendship which can survive even the horror of war and ethnic and religious conflict . In a sense, Eskibahçe represents a Turkey in which different religious and ethnic communities could live in harmony before the choice to do so was taken away from them. And the tragic love story of the Muslim boy Ibrahim and the Christian girl Philotei which forms part of the narrative represents the tragedy which befell Greek Christians expelled from Turkey to a land which was not their own. In the process of describing the devastation on which this novel centres, de Bernières does not spare himself in criticising those he considers responsible for what occurred.

Before I started reading the novel, I was reasonably familiar with the political situation in Turkey since the 1980s. By reading it I learned a lot about the beginnings of modern Turkey and was able to put what I already knew into historical context. This is not an easy novel to read. However, it made me both laugh and cry and for a patient reader with an interest in 20th century international relations, the novel is a rewarding literary experience. Thanks to my GR friend Chrissie for recommending it to me.
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Although I think this book deserves 4 stars objectively because of all of the research done for it, I would on a personal level give it 3 stars...mainly because I didn't enjoy any of the overly long and tedious descriptions of war from the 1915 era of the Ottoman Empire. It is somewhat interesting that I've now read this book and The Bastard of Istanbul and they give completely different perspectives (I seem to recall Jeffrey Eugenides talking about Turks persecuting Greeks at around this time as well when the book opens.) Basically, here we hear about the Greek Christians persecuting the Turkish Muslims though for the most part it gets incredibly confusing about whose side anyone is on. What is pretty clear is how war is not benefitting anyone involved, least of all the women in various small towns that are being tortured to death in all manner of horrifying fashion.


I don't like reading about war and overall I thought the character development was rich and it told a powerful story but I would have liked more of that and less scenes of war. It's always pretty despicable to me to think of what tragedies against eachother humans are capable of committing.... ( )

For me, this had a slow build up. It's well crafted and researched, but I found the first half of the book a little slow as de Bernières developed the plot and characters. Once that had happened, though, it was a much better book. I could truly believe in the characters and I enjoyed the way they were written into the facts of history, bringing the things I had learnt at school about the Gallipoli campaign and the creation of modern Turkey to life. It was also interesting to gain a Turkish perspective on this part of history. I read the book straight after Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, as well, so now I feel like I've had a crash course in early 20th century Turkish/Greek history! Overall, the story is a human one, full of sorrow, laughter and farce, and explores the contradictions of what it is to be human. ( )