Birds Without Wings
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $27.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
John Lee
About this listen
Birds Without Wings traces the fortunes of one small community in Southwest Turkey (Anatolia) in the early part of the last century - a quirky community in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have coexisted peacefully over the centuries and where friendship, even love, has transcended religious differences.
But with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the onset of the Great War, the sweep of history has a cataclysmic effect on this peaceful place: The great love of Philothei, a Christian girl of legendary beauty, and Ibrahim, a Muslim shepherd who courts her from near infancy, culminates in tragedy and madness; two inseparable childhood friends who grow up playing in the hills above the town suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of the bloody struggle; and Rustem Bey, a wealthy landlord, who has an enchanting mistress who is not what she seems.
Far away from these small lives, a man of destiny who will come to be known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is emerging to create a country from the ruins of an empire. Victory at Gallipoli fails to save the Ottomans from ultimate defeat, and as a new conflict arises, Muslims and Christians struggle to survive, let alone understand, their part in the great tragedy that will reshape the whole region forever.
©2004 Louis de Bernieres (P)2004 Books on TapeListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Dust That Falls from Dreams
- A Novel
- By: Louis de Bernieres
- Narrated by: Avita Jay, David Sibley
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the brief, golden years of the Edwardian era, the McCosh sisters - Christabel, Ottilie, Rosie, and Sophie - grow up in an idyllic household in the countryside south of London. On one side their neighbors are the proper Pendennis family, recently arrived from Baltimore. On the other side is the Pitt family. In childhood this band is inseparable, but the days of careless camaraderie are brought to an abrupt halt by the outbreak of The Great War, in which everyone will play a part.
-
-
WWI-era family saga done right!
- By Annie M. on 08-30-15
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Corelli's Mandolin
- A Novel
- By: Louis de Bernieres
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The place is the Greek island of Cephallonia, where gods once dabbled in the affairs of men and the local saint periodically rises from his sarcophagus to cure the mad. Then the tide of World War II rolls onto the island's shores in the form of the conquering Italian army.
-
-
LOVELY! Moving, hilarious, enlightening...
- By AK on 07-26-19
-
The Autumn of the Ace
- By: Louis de Bernières
- Narrated by: David Sibley
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel's marriage has fractured beyond repair, and Daniel's relationship with his son, Bertie, has been a failure since Bertie was a small boy. But after his brother Archie's death, Daniel is keen for new perspectives. He first travels to Peshawar to bury Archie in the place he loved best and then finds himself in Canada, avoiding his family and friends back in England. But some bonds are hard to break. Daniel and Bertie's different experiences of war, although devastating, also bring with them the opportunity for the two to reconnect.
-
-
wonderful trilogy
- By CHRISTINE M MARTIN on 12-10-23
-
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
- By: Bettany Hughes
- Narrated by: Bettany Hughes
- Length: 24 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City", but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city but a global story.
-
-
A daunting undertaking pulled off superlatively
- By SGS on 12-24-17
By: Bettany Hughes
-
The Bastard of Istanbul
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a 19-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul.
-
-
A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
-
The Dust That Falls from Dreams
- A Novel
- By: Louis de Bernieres
- Narrated by: Avita Jay, David Sibley
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the brief, golden years of the Edwardian era, the McCosh sisters - Christabel, Ottilie, Rosie, and Sophie - grow up in an idyllic household in the countryside south of London. On one side their neighbors are the proper Pendennis family, recently arrived from Baltimore. On the other side is the Pitt family. In childhood this band is inseparable, but the days of careless camaraderie are brought to an abrupt halt by the outbreak of The Great War, in which everyone will play a part.
-
-
WWI-era family saga done right!
- By Annie M. on 08-30-15
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Corelli's Mandolin
- A Novel
- By: Louis de Bernieres
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The place is the Greek island of Cephallonia, where gods once dabbled in the affairs of men and the local saint periodically rises from his sarcophagus to cure the mad. Then the tide of World War II rolls onto the island's shores in the form of the conquering Italian army.
-
-
LOVELY! Moving, hilarious, enlightening...
- By AK on 07-26-19
-
The Autumn of the Ace
- By: Louis de Bernières
- Narrated by: David Sibley
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel's marriage has fractured beyond repair, and Daniel's relationship with his son, Bertie, has been a failure since Bertie was a small boy. But after his brother Archie's death, Daniel is keen for new perspectives. He first travels to Peshawar to bury Archie in the place he loved best and then finds himself in Canada, avoiding his family and friends back in England. But some bonds are hard to break. Daniel and Bertie's different experiences of war, although devastating, also bring with them the opportunity for the two to reconnect.
-
-
wonderful trilogy
- By CHRISTINE M MARTIN on 12-10-23
-
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
- By: Bettany Hughes
- Narrated by: Bettany Hughes
- Length: 24 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City", but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city but a global story.
-
-
A daunting undertaking pulled off superlatively
- By SGS on 12-24-17
By: Bettany Hughes
-
The Bastard of Istanbul
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a 19-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul.
-
-
A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
So Much Life Left Over
- A Novel
- By: Louis de Bernières
- Narrated by: Avita Jay, David Sibley
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They were an inseparable tribe of childhood friends. Some were lost to the battles of the First World War, and those who survived have had their lives unimaginably upended. Now, at the dawn of the 1920s, they’ve scattered: to Ceylon and India, France and Germany, and, inevitably, back to Britain, each of them trying to answer the question that fuels this sweeping novel: If you have been embroiled in a war in which you confidently expected to die, what are you supposed to do with so much life unexpectedly left over?
-
-
Meh
- By Amazon Customer on 09-12-18
-
Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
-
-
Wow! It’s a Masterpiece
- By Billy on 10-25-22
-
My Name Is Red
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Erdag Goknar - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of 16th-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.
-
-
Complex and interesting
- By Kathleen on 05-13-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
-
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
-
-
Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
-
Horse
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
-
-
Love Geraldine Brooks
- By Regina on 06-25-22
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
-
-
Before Purchasing
- By JLDLOfficial on 08-13-22
By: Hernan Diaz
-
Snow
- A Novel
- By: Orhan Pamuk
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following years of lonely political exile in Western Europe, Ka, a middle-aged poet, returns to Istanbul to attend his mother's funeral. Only partly recognizing this place of his cultured, middle-class youth, he is even more disoriented by news of strange events in the wider country: a wave of suicides among girls forbidden to wear their head scarves at school.
-
-
All the good & bad that is Pamuk
- By Elizabeth on 08-13-07
By: Orhan Pamuk
-
A Fine Balance
- By: Rohinton Mistry
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers—a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village—will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.
-
-
Read this book if your heart is made of steal
- By Amazon Shopper on 03-23-08
By: Rohinton Mistry
-
The Great Alone
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
-
-
A Long, Hard Slog Through Endless Despair and Heartache
- By Morro Schreiber on 04-11-18
By: Kristin Hannah
-
The Baker's Secret
- A Novel
- By: Stephen P. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Only 22, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at 13, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again. In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back.
-
-
Help is really on the way
- By Georgia on 07-15-17
-
A Tale of Two Cities [Tantor]
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens's most exciting novels. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, it tells the story of a family threatened by the terrible events of the past. Doctor Manette was wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years without trial by the aristocratic authorities.
-
-
it's the singer not the song*
- By Maynard on 11-09-13
By: Charles Dickens
Editorial reviews
Related to this topic
-
The Cossacks
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: David Thorn
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The colorful Cossack way of life is made alive and real in this historical novel.
Tolstoy's first novel and acknowledged as one of his best, it is based on his own forays into the Caucasus, abandoning his aristocrat life of gambling and carousing in Moscow and volunteering to be attached to the regular army.
-
-
Tolstoy masterpiece is wounded by terrible audio
- By Darwin8u on 07-24-13
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Moor's Last Sigh
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie combines a ferociously witty family saga with a surreally imagined and sometimes blasphemous chronicle of modern India and flavors the mixture with peppery soliloquies on art, ethnicity, religious fanaticism, and the terrifying power of love. Moraes "Moor" Zogoiby, the last surviving scion of a dynasty of Cochinese spice merchants and crime lords, is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile.
-
-
The performance is enchanting.
- By Kelly on 05-04-18
By: Salman Rushdie
-
Shalimar the Clown
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Maximilian Ophuls is murdered outside his daughter's home by his Kashmiri Muslim driver, it appears to be a political killing. Ophuls is the former U.S. ambassador to India and America's leading figure in counter-terrorism. But there is much more to Ophuls and his assassin, a mysterious man calling himself "Shalimar the Clown", than meets the eye. One woman is at the center of their shared history, a history of betrayal and deception.
-
-
Incredible
- By Barry on 12-07-05
By: Salman Rushdie
-
Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet
- By: Deepak Chopra MD
- Narrated by: Deepak Chopra
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born into the factious world of war-torn Arabia, Muhammad's life is a gripping and inspiring story of one man's tireless fight for unity and peace. In a world where greed and injustice ruled, Muhammad created change by affecting hearts and minds. Just as the story of Jesus embodies the message of Christianity, Muhammad's life reveals the core of Islam. Deepak Chopra shares the life of Muhammad as never before, putting his teachings in a new light.
-
-
Poorly written and poorly narrated
- By Shahrad Milanfar on 10-21-10
By: Deepak Chopra MD
-
The Architect's Apprentice
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Piter Marek
- Length: 16 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1540, 12-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul. As an animal tamer in the sultan's menagerie, he looks after the exceptionally smart elephant Chota and befriends (and falls for) the sultan's beautiful daughter Princess Mihrimah. A palace education leads Jahan to Mimar Sinan, the empire's chief architect, who takes Jahan under his wing as they construct (with Chota's help) some of the most magnificent buildings in history.
-
-
I feel like I should like it more than I do
- By nyog on 04-19-17
By: Elif Shafak
-
The Power and the Glory
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Greene explores corruption and atonement in this penetrating novel set in 1930s Mexico during the era of Communist religious persecutions. As revolutionaries determine to stamp out the evils of the church through violence, the last Roman Catholic priest is on the lam, hunted by a police lieutenant. Despite his own sense of worthlessness—he is a heavy drinker and has fathered an illegitimate child—he is determined to continue to function as a priest until captured.
-
-
Lousy recording quality of bad narration
- By Vincent on 10-08-12
By: Graham Greene
-
The Cossacks
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: David Thorn
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The colorful Cossack way of life is made alive and real in this historical novel.
Tolstoy's first novel and acknowledged as one of his best, it is based on his own forays into the Caucasus, abandoning his aristocrat life of gambling and carousing in Moscow and volunteering to be attached to the regular army.
-
-
Tolstoy masterpiece is wounded by terrible audio
- By Darwin8u on 07-24-13
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
The Moor's Last Sigh
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie combines a ferociously witty family saga with a surreally imagined and sometimes blasphemous chronicle of modern India and flavors the mixture with peppery soliloquies on art, ethnicity, religious fanaticism, and the terrifying power of love. Moraes "Moor" Zogoiby, the last surviving scion of a dynasty of Cochinese spice merchants and crime lords, is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile.
-
-
The performance is enchanting.
- By Kelly on 05-04-18
By: Salman Rushdie
-
Shalimar the Clown
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Maximilian Ophuls is murdered outside his daughter's home by his Kashmiri Muslim driver, it appears to be a political killing. Ophuls is the former U.S. ambassador to India and America's leading figure in counter-terrorism. But there is much more to Ophuls and his assassin, a mysterious man calling himself "Shalimar the Clown", than meets the eye. One woman is at the center of their shared history, a history of betrayal and deception.
-
-
Incredible
- By Barry on 12-07-05
By: Salman Rushdie
-
Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet
- By: Deepak Chopra MD
- Narrated by: Deepak Chopra
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born into the factious world of war-torn Arabia, Muhammad's life is a gripping and inspiring story of one man's tireless fight for unity and peace. In a world where greed and injustice ruled, Muhammad created change by affecting hearts and minds. Just as the story of Jesus embodies the message of Christianity, Muhammad's life reveals the core of Islam. Deepak Chopra shares the life of Muhammad as never before, putting his teachings in a new light.
-
-
Poorly written and poorly narrated
- By Shahrad Milanfar on 10-21-10
By: Deepak Chopra MD
-
The Architect's Apprentice
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Piter Marek
- Length: 16 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1540, 12-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul. As an animal tamer in the sultan's menagerie, he looks after the exceptionally smart elephant Chota and befriends (and falls for) the sultan's beautiful daughter Princess Mihrimah. A palace education leads Jahan to Mimar Sinan, the empire's chief architect, who takes Jahan under his wing as they construct (with Chota's help) some of the most magnificent buildings in history.
-
-
I feel like I should like it more than I do
- By nyog on 04-19-17
By: Elif Shafak
-
The Power and the Glory
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Greene explores corruption and atonement in this penetrating novel set in 1930s Mexico during the era of Communist religious persecutions. As revolutionaries determine to stamp out the evils of the church through violence, the last Roman Catholic priest is on the lam, hunted by a police lieutenant. Despite his own sense of worthlessness—he is a heavy drinker and has fathered an illegitimate child—he is determined to continue to function as a priest until captured.
-
-
Lousy recording quality of bad narration
- By Vincent on 10-08-12
By: Graham Greene
-
The Passion
- By: Jeanette Winterson
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues, Daniel Pirrie
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meets their singular destiny.
-
-
Excellence.
- By Scottie V. on 10-07-19
-
Zorba the Greek
- By: Nikos Kazantzakis
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A wonderful tale of a young man’s coming of age, Zorba the Greek has been a classic of world literature since it was first translated into English in 1952 and made into an unforgettable movie with Anthony Quinn. Zorba, an irrepressible, earthy hedonist, sweeps his young disciple along as he wines, dines, and loves his way through a life dedicated to fulfilling his copious appetites. Zorba is irresistible in this charming audio production by veteran narrator George Guidall.
-
-
Drink life to the lees
- By Scot Potts on 04-25-13
-
The Centurions
- By: Jean Larteguy, Robert D. Kaplan - foreward
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When The Centurions was first published in 1960, readers were riveted by the thrilling account of soldiers fighting for survival in hostile environments. They were equally transfixed by the chilling moral question the novel posed: how to fight when the "age of heroics is over". As relevant today as it was half a century ago, The Centurions is a gripping military adventure, an extended symposium on waging war in a new global order, and an essential investigation of the ethics of counterinsurgency.
-
-
Superbly read. Unbelievably timely
- By Benjamin on 05-05-21
By: Jean Larteguy, and others
-
The Hundred Wells of Salaga
- A Novel
- By: Ayesha Harruna Attah
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century. The Hundred Wells of Salaga offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.
-
Dragon Seed
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Chinese the dragon is not an evil creature, but is a god and the friend of men who worship him. He "holds in his power prosperity and peace." Ruling the waters and the winds, he sends the good rain, is hence the symbol of fecundity. In the Hsia dynasty two dragons fought a great duel until both disappeared, leaving only a fertile foam from which were born the descendants of the Hsia. Thus, the dragons came to be looked upon as the ancestors of a race of heroes. This is the story of China at War.
-
-
More Relevant Today than Ever
- By Robert on 07-29-13
By: Pearl S. Buck
-
Wicked
- The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
- By: Gregory Maguire
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heralded as an instant classic of fantasy literature, Maguire has written a wonderfully imaginative retelling of The Wizard of Oz told from the Wicked Witch's point of view. More than just a fairy tale for adults, Wicked is a meditation on the nature of good and evil.
-
-
It's not easy being green
- By PangaeaReads on 07-30-08
By: Gregory Maguire
-
The Death of Artemio Cruz
- A Novel
- By: Carlos Fuentes, Alfred MacAdam - translator
- Narrated by: Tony Chiroldes
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, the all-powerful newspaper magnate and land baron, lies confined to his bed and, in dreamlike flashes, recalls the pivotal episodes of his life. Carlos Fuentes manipulates the ensuing kaleidoscope of images with dazzling inventiveness, layering memory upon memory, from Cruz’s heroic campaigns during the Mexican Revolution, through his relentless climb from poverty to wealth, to his uneasy death. Perhaps Fuentes’ masterpiece, The Death of Artemio Cruz is a haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico.
-
-
Great Writing
- By Kelly B. on 05-01-14
By: Carlos Fuentes, and others
-
The Lioness of Morocco
- By: Julia Drosten, Christiane Galvani - translator
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Independent-minded Sibylla Spencer feels trapped in 19th-century London, where her strong will and progressive views have rendered her unmarriageable. Still single at 23, she is treated like a child and feels stifled in her controlling father's house. When Benjamin Hopkins, an ambitious employee of her father's trading company, shows an interest in her, she realizes marriage is her only chance to escape.
-
-
The Lioness o Morocco
- By MM on 06-23-17
By: Julia Drosten, and others
-
Cup of Gold
- A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
- By: John Steinbeck, Susan F. Beegel - introduction
- Narrated by: Ronan Vibert
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja and to conquer Panama, the "cup of gold".
-
-
Not your usual Steinbeck novel
- By Andrew on 06-03-15
By: John Steinbeck, and others
-
Independent People
- By: Halldór Laxness
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magnificent novel - which secured for its author the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature - is now available to contemporary American audiences. Although it is set in the early 20th century, it recalls both Iceland's medieval epics and such classics as Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.
-
-
I am so confused about this introduction
- By George M on 09-10-18
By: Halldór Laxness
-
The Wife's Tale
- A Personal History
- By: Aida Edemariam
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this indelible memoir of the life of her remarkable 95-year-old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia - a nation that underwent a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of one century. Filled with a vivid cast of characters - emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents - The Wife's Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable.
-
-
A Look At Ethiopia
- By Jean on 07-15-18
By: Aida Edemariam
-
In the Name of the Family
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Dunant
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1502, and Rodrigo Borgia, a self-confessed womanizer and master of political corruption, is now on the papal throne as Alexander VI. His daughter Lucrezia, age 22 - already three times married and a pawn in her father's plans - is discovering her own power. And then there is his son Cesare Borgia, brilliant, ruthless, and increasingly unstable; it is his relationship with Machiavelli that gives the Florentine diplomat a master class in the dark arts of power and politics.
-
-
One of the best historical fiction novels
- By GrandmaNurseHeather on 04-13-17
By: Sarah Dunant
What listeners say about Birds Without Wings
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jean
- 06-16-18
More than a story
De Bernières captures the soul of humanism in his telling of events before, during, and after WWI from the rarely considered perspective of both non-western and non-powerful actors on the scene. With his graphic descriptions of the atrocities of war (and yes, as other reviewers have commented - it is not for the faint-hearted) and the consequences thereof for regular, peaceful citizens of the world, the author weaves a thought-provoking web that is much, much more than a story.
Yet a story it is and a damn good one, and brilliantly related by the narrator, John Lee.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- William
- 06-20-05
Great entertainment with a bit of history
This was one of the moste enjoyable titles I've listened to in quite a while. The book skips from the first-hand, fictional stories of the major characters to an omniscient narrator who puts the stories in a hard historical context. Its initial vignettes reminded me of Chaucer, Twain and even Garrison Kieler. Like the Great Powers, the listener is subtly pulled into the horrors of war and the ethnic cleansing which has plagued the Balkans for centuries. The narrator, John Lee, is superb. His suite of seamless voices and accents believably convey and elaborate each character's nuance.
Buy it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-09-23
John Lee was phenomenal
For a fantastic book, a fantastic narrator. What a wonderful book! I'm going to be checking out some of his other works as well.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- a
- 01-03-05
Not for the faint of heart
An intricate web of storytelling that brings an understanding to a part of WWI that has received such little attention. I am in awe of Louis De Bernieres' ability to impart through dialogue so much of the feeling, with such authenticity, the perspective of characters who are so foreign in every way. The one perspective that is not foreign, though, is their humanity, that which is common to us all. It is through the eyes and ears and hearts of these characters that we see the world in which they lived, the community that they shared, and the sometimes improbable lives that they led. De Bernieres weaves a complex story whcih demands much from his reader. If you can commit to that demand, he will deliver an unforgettable tale full of history, humanity, and humor. A masterpiece!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
28 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Alan Rither
- 11-19-06
Excellent Antidote for Bigotry
The author not only wrote an engaging story about the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, but an excellent antidote for bigotry. As you get to know the characters, it matters little whether they are Christian or Muslim -- they are just parts of the village we come to know and love. Honor and integrity are shown by both sides as are dishonor and perfidy. Battle scenes are revealed as horrible rather than glorious. His storytelling method reminds me of Faulkner's, 'As I Lay Dying'. The narrator was superb with distinct voices for each character. This was one of my favorite audiobooks.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Paul
- 05-22-06
The Eastern Mediterranean, Explained
This is a great book, provided you bear with the author's chatty, digressive style. But believe it or not, most of what appear to be loose threads in the oriental rug are tied up by the time you reach the end. Also, the point of view changes from chapter to chapter, and not every author can pull off a trick like that; it takes very close attention to detail, and that's something this author has in abundance.
The story focuses on a small, inconsequential village in Turkey between ca. 1900 and 1925. The village is tossed on the sea of world events, and is radically changed, unfortunately for the worse. It also contains a series of vignettes on the life and career of Hamal Ataturk, considered the founder of modern Turkey. Turkey's involvement in World War I and subsequent conflicts with Greece are major themes for this work. If history is not your cup of tea, but you like a good story, I suggest you read a little bit about the development of modern Turkey.
This book has a vast range of characters. Sometimes I wondered if it was really the village that was the main character, and the people are really different facets of the one municipal personality. Overall, highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John L. Murphy
- 03-21-16
The other side of WWI and more
What did you love best about Birds Without Wings?
The immersion into village life on the southern Turkish coast, and the way that some characters were pulled from that into war and exile, realistically and not romantically.
What did you like best about this story?
I learned a lot about Mustafa Kamal turned Ataturk, and his rise to power was integrated well into the narrative, as gradually one character's progress intersected briefly with the famed leader. While at first these passages appear out of place, they gradually overlap with the characters, who are taken up without knowing it into the formation of Turkey as we know it a century later, a nation which chose to remake itself, at the cost of its Ottoman past.
What about John Lee’s performance did you like?
Best of many moments were his dramatization of the Greek merchant's monologue as he sunk off Smyrna, and an ironic delight was Father Christoferos' fevered denunciation of all things tainted Catholic. John Lee and Louis de Bernieres share the joy and sorrow of a well-told epic, and they remind me of the sheer pleasure in storytelling at a long pace.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It made me chuckle, as in the many wry comments the narrators make about what one calls the "fetid bed" where nationalism and religion couple to produce monsters, so to speak. I was sad when many characters succumbed to the impact of war and ethnic cleansing. The tone of this book veers between the literary fiction's interest in ideas and ideologies, and the bestseller's skill at entertaining as well as educating readers about the Greek-Turkish clash.
Any additional comments?
This novel remains relevant as a cautionary tale, as we witness new tales of suffering, violence, and refugees across Anatolia and the surrounding Levantine and Balkans. Louis de Bernieres' prequel of sorts to the WWII-themed Corelli's Mandolin now makes me wish that had a John Lee audiobook too. A shame that title is not on Audible.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bateyk
- 01-18-15
Too sad and beautiful
Thank you for this glorious telling of a glorious story. I am weeping as I finish it.
De bernieres is masterful as always
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- nyc2cents
- 09-24-21
The struggle to live harmoniously vs politics
The story of people against the backdrop of global politics, and the complete lack of connectedness of the leaders to the harmonious, functional, lives of the general population. Preying upon human nature of greed, power-lust, religious devotion and fear, the Ottomans enter war and the world is all the worse for it. The Ottoman Empire was tolerant, prosperous and diverse populations living harmoniously. Truly beautifully written, no one escapes being damaged. Great narrator (although I sped it up to 1.4x) Great audible book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 11-13-21
great book & narration
One of the best books I've ever read! long. but worth sticking with it. excellent history and rich characters.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!