Overview
In his first novel since Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Berni res creates a world, populates it with characters as real as our best friends, and launches it into the maelstrom of twentieth-century history. The setting is a small village in southwestern Anatolia in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Everyone there speaks Turkish, though they write it in Greek letters. It's a place that has room for a professional blasphemer; where a brokenhearted aga finds solace in the arms of a Circassian courtesan who isn't Circassian at all; where a beautiful Christian girl named Philothei is engaged to a Muslim boy named Ibrahim. But all of this will change when Turkey enters the modern world. Epic in sweep, intoxicating in its sensual detail, Birds Without Wings is an enchantment.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781400079322
- ISBN-10: 1400079322
- Publisher: Vintage
- Publish Date: June 2005
- Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.98 pounds
- Page Count: 576
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Birds without Wings
This broad historical novel is de Bernieres' first book in more than a decade. His previous release, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, was a national bestseller, and readers of that epic will not be disappointed with his latest offering. Set in an Anatolian village during the decline of the Ottoman Empire, this gripping saga is richly populated with a host of memorable characters, who struggle to hold on to their lives in the midst of war. Philothei, a young Christian woman, is set to marry Ibrahim, a man of Muslim descent whom she has known since childhood. When Philothei dies unexpectedly, Ibrahim plunges into madness. The tragic tale of the two lovers is paralleled with stories about the town's other inhabitants, including Rustem Bey, a wealthy landowner with an unfaithful wife, whom he tries to have stoned to death; a Greek scholar named Leonides, who hatches political schemes in secret; and Iskander, a potter, whose son, Karatavuk, grows up to fight at Gallipoli. Intertwined with these various plotlines is the life of Kemal Ataturk, the military leader who launched Turkey as a modern, secular nation. Written with plenty of dramatic appeal and fascinating factual background, de Bernieres's book brings to life an important chapter in world history.
A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.readinggroupcenter.com.
Birds without Wings
This broad historical novel is de Bernieres' first book in more than a decade. His previous release, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, was a national bestseller, and readers of that epic will not be disappointed with his latest offering. Set in an Anatolian village during the decline of the Ottoman Empire, this gripping saga is richly populated with a host of memorable characters, who struggle to hold on to their lives in the midst of war. Philothei, a young Christian woman, is set to marry Ibrahim, a man of Muslim descent whom she has known since childhood. When Philothei dies unexpectedly, Ibrahim plunges into madness. The tragic tale of the two lovers is paralleled with stories about the town's other inhabitants, including Rustem Bey, a wealthy landowner with an unfaithful wife, whom he tries to have stoned to death; a Greek scholar named Leonides, who hatches political schemes in secret; and Iskander, a potter, whose son, Karatavuk, grows up to fight at Gallipoli. Intertwined with these various plotlines is the life of Kemal Ataturk, the military leader who launched Turkey as a modern, secular nation. Written with plenty of dramatic appeal and fascinating factual background, de Bernieres's book brings to life an important chapter in world history.
A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.readinggroupcenter.com.