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Birds Without Wings

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Birds Without Wings

By: Louis De Bernieres
Narrated by: Christopher Kay
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Birds Without Wings tells of the inhabitants of a small coastal town in South West Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman empire: the local Potter and fount of proverbial wisdom; a Christian girl of legendary beauty; childhood friends who play in the hills above the town, and the two holy men of different faiths, who greet each other with the words 'infidel efendi'.

©2004 Louis de Bernières (P)2005 W. F. Howes Ltd Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Inspiring Tear-jerking Heartfelt
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I love de Bernieres breadth of vocabulary and this book brought back memories of the awe I felt when I read Don Emanuele many year ago- such wonderful detail!
I also loved learning some history without feeling I was learning history. History I am ashamed to say I knew nothing about until I read this book. Objective reached Mr De Bearnieres. Complimenti!

Fantastic story

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This book is simply beautiful. I have laughed and cried. I got educated in a history that was not made available when I was at school. I

simply beautiful story.

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I thought I would give up after the first few hours of listening as the story progression was very slow. However the scene setting is rewarded by the rest of the book which gives a detailed if depressing account of the end of the Ottoman period and early Turkish history. Narration is excellent but patience is required and rewarded throughout.

Enjoyable but slow

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Louis De Bernieres has always written such eloquent and descriptive books and this is definitely no exception. His prose, writing style and descriptions in addition to the excellent narration could be compared with gently caressing your ears with the finest silk. The story is intertwined with historical references and events, primarily relating to Mustafa Kemal (the first president of Turkey). If you have zero interest in history, perhaps this is not the book for you but De Bernieres does handhold the reader through the events of the time so ends up being both informative and enjoyable.

The narrator does an excellent job with difficult Turkish and Greek accents and makes it easy to differentiate the characters.

The only negative is that the story does get a little repetitive with facts, quotes and character memories being regularly repeated. With the book being so very long, I can understand why the author has done this but personally found it a bit unnecessary.

All in all, definitely an excellent read. If you enjoyed LDB's South American trilogy, this book is a must!

A lovely story that is simply pleasure to the ears

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Unashamedly I adore Louis De Bernieres. He has an ability to paint pictures in words and create fullsome worlds that make the listener ache for times gone by. Much like Captain Corelli this a gentle, evocative account of broadly unremarkable people going about their daily lives, but wrought in such a way and woven into historical context that you absolutely fall head over heels for them. I can picture almost every character and somehow De Bernieres succeeds in combining complex, multiple characters and plots into an easy to absorb narrative. The detail is superb and despite plenty of traumatic and violent events, the story feels warm and heartening. It’s a huge soft couch of a narrative. I love this story!

Equally there are very significant real events in play, demonstrating the very worst of human ignorance, stupidity and our ability to scapegoat through prejudice. There are lessons from history, not dissimilar to the Third Reich or more recent Balkans War and these are vividly portrayed, not through violent detail but by the individual and collective journeys of key characters.

One criticism I would level is that much like ‘The Dust That Falls From Dreams’ the story is possibly a little drawn out in the final few chapters. But this is a small price to pay for the immersive story provided in both instances.

Just a beautiful and hugely evocative story

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