
Birds Without Wings
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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 Tape
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Editorial reviews
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Yet a story it is and a damn good one, and brilliantly related by the narrator, John Lee.
More than a story
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Buy it.
Great entertainment with a bit of history
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John Lee was phenomenal
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Not for the faint of heart
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Excellent Antidote for Bigotry
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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.
The Eastern Mediterranean, Explained
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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.The other side of WWI and more
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De bernieres is masterful as always
Too sad and beautiful
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The struggle to live harmoniously vs politics
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great book & narration
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