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Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières (2004, Hardcover)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-101400043417
ISBN-139781400043415
eBay Product ID (ePID)30529046
Product Key Features
Book TitleBirds Without Wings
Number of Pages576 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicWar & Military, Family Life, Religious, Literary, Historical
Publication Year2004
IllustratorYes
GenreFiction
AuthorLouis De Bernières
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.4 in
Item Weight32.9 Oz
Item Length9.5 in
Item Width6.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2004-014529
Reviews"An absorbing epic . . . It [has] the pleasingly busy feel of a 19th-century classic (it's no surprise that de Bernières has cited "War and Peace" as a model for his work)." New York Times Book Review "A fascinating, evocative work written on a grand scale not much seen today . . . In his compassionate portrayal of simple people struggling against sweeping historical forces and his vivid descriptions of the cruelties of war, de Bernières has reached heights that few modern novelists ever attempt." Nicholas Gage,Washington Post Book World " 'Birds Without Wings' is one of the most engrossing novels I've read all year . . . A lively and enlivening history and character study and geography and theological accounting all in one . . . The book's title comes from [the] gnomic statement 'Man is a bird without wings. A bird is a man without sorrows.' Sadly, as we read, we learn once again that our species can't fly. But a novel can soar." Alan Cheuse,Chicago Tribune " 'Birds Without Wings' remains a quite astonishing, and compulsively readable, tour de force. De Bernières has caught to perfection the slow-paced, richly descriptive, discursive, proverb-laden narrative style characteristic of Balkan and Anatolian storytellers. His subtly differentiated characters attach themselves to us and won't let go: We come to care about them, and their deaths diminish us . . . [This] novel tells us more about our flawed human condition than is comfortable to know, and that is its greatest strength." Peter Green,Los Angeles Times "A deeply rewarding work about the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire . . . So much is remarkable about this novel, from the heft of its history to the power of its legends . . . This epic about the tragedy of borders is likely to cross all borders, moving readers everywhere as it describes the harrowing cost of remaking faraway places in the image of our dreams." Christian Science Monitor "Humorous, horrific, and luminously moving . . . De Bernières' canvas is wide, as he sketches political movements and takes religion and nationalism to task, but his characters' stories are intimate, creating a wonderfully rich and timely epic." Booklist(starred review) "A long, interesting and sometimes challenging book . . . De Bernières writes dense, fine-grained prose that moves with the measured grace of a 19th century novel." San Francisco Chronicle "Enormously readable, intermittently brilliant, honorably conceived and felt." Kirkus "An absorbing read about a captivating time . . . a rich, poignant story." The Economist "Louis de Bernières is in the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh. . .he has only to look into his world, one senses, for it to rush into reality, colours and touch and taste." A. S. Byatt, "An absorbing epic . . . It [has] the pleasingly busy feel of a 19th-century classic (it's no surprise that de Bernières has cited "War and Peace" as a model for his work)." New York Times Book Review "A fascinating, evocative work written on a grand scale not much seen today . . . In his compassionate portrayal of simple people struggling against sweeping historical forces and his vivid descriptions of the cruelties of war, de Bernières has reached heights that few modern novelists ever attempt." Nicholas Gage, Washington Post Book World " 'Birds Without Wings' is one of the most engrossing novels I've read all year . . . A lively and enlivening history and character study and geography and theological accounting all in one . . . The book's title comes from [the] gnomic statement 'Man is a bird without wings. A bird is a man without sorrows.' Sadly, as we read, we learn once again that our species can't fly. But a novel can soar." Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune " 'Birds Without Wings' remains a quite astonishing, and compulsively readable, tour de force. De Bernières has caught to perfection the slow-paced, richly descriptive, discursive, proverb-laden narrative style characteristic of Balkan and Anatolian storytellers. His subtly differentiated characters attach themselves to us and won't let go: We come to care about them, and their deaths diminish us . . . [This] novel tells us more about our flawed human condition than is comfortable to know, and that is its greatest strength." Peter Green, Los Angeles Times "A deeply rewarding work about the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire . . . So much is remarkable about this novel, from the heft of its history to the power of its legends . . . This epic about the tragedy of borders is likely to cross all borders, moving readers everywhere as it describes the harrowing cost of remaking faraway places in the image of our dreams." Christian Science Monitor "Humorous, horrific, and luminously moving . . . De Bernières' canvas is wide, as he sketches political movements and takes religion and nationalism to task, but his characters' stories are intimate, creating a wonderfully rich and timely epic." Booklist (starred review) "A long, interesting and sometimes challenging book . . . De Bernières writes dense, fine-grained prose that moves with the measured grace of a 19th century novel." San Francisco Chronicle "Enormously readable, intermittently brilliant, honorably conceived and felt." Kirkus "An absorbing read about a captivating time . . . a rich, poignant story." The Economist "Louis de Bernières is in the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh. . .he has only to look into his world, one senses, for it to rush into reality, colours and touch and taste." A. S. Byatt, "An absorbing epic . . . It [has] the pleasingly busy feel of a 19th-century classic (it's no surprise that de Bernieres has cited "War and Peace" as a model for his work)." -"New York Times Book Review" "A fascinating, evocative work written on a grand scale not much seen today . . . In his compassionate portrayal of simple people struggling against sweeping historical forces and his vivid descriptions of the cruelties of war, de Bernieres has reached heights that few modern novelists ever attempt." -Nicholas Gage, "Washington Post Book World" " 'Birds Without Wings' is one of the most engrossing novels I've read all year . . . A lively and enlivening history and character study and geography and theological accounting all in one . . . The book's title comes from [the] gnomic statement 'Man is a bird without wings. A bird is a man without sorrows.' Sadly, as we read, we learn once again that our species can't fly. But a novel can soar." -Alan Cheuse, "Chicago Tribune" " 'Birds Without Wings' remains a quite astonishing, and compulsively readable, tour de force. De Bernieres has caught to perfection the slow-paced, richly descriptive, discursive, proverb-laden narrative style characteristic of Balkan and Anatolian storytellers. His subtly differentiated characters attach themselves to us and won't let go: We come to care about them, and their deaths diminish us . . . [This] novel tells us more about our flawed human condition than is comfortable to know, and that is its greatest strength." -Peter Green, "Los Angeles Times" "A deeply rewarding work about the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire . . . So much is remarkable about this novel, from the heft of itshistory to the power of its legends . . . This epic about the tragedy of borders is likely to cross all borders, moving readers everywhere as it describes the harrowing cost of remaking faraway places in the image of our dreams." -"Christian Science Monitor " "Humorous, horrific, and luminously moving . . . De Bernieres' canvas is wide, as he sketches political movements and takes religion and nationalism to task, but his characters' stories are intimate, creating a wonderfully rich and timely epic." -"Booklist" (starred review) "A long, interesting and sometimes challenging book . . . De Bernieres writes dense, fine-grained prose that moves with the measured grace of a 19th century novel." -"San Francisco Chronicle" "Enormously readable, intermittently brilliant, honorably conceived and felt." -"Kirkus" "An absorbing read about a captivating time . . . a rich, poignant story." -"The Economist" "Louis de Bernieres is in the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh. . .he has only to look into his world, one senses, for it to rush into reality, colours and touch and taste." -A. S. Byatt
Dewey Edition22
Dewey Decimal823/.914
SynopsisIn his first novel since Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres 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. Book jacket., 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.
LC Classification NumberPR6054.E132B57 2004
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