Birds Without Wings

I think this is a brilliant and, for me, unforgettable novel. It took an aspect of Ottoman history that I knew about as dry fact and imprinted it on my heart. I was fascinated by the daily lives of varied peoples in one small Ottoman town, how intertwined they were, even writing one language in the alphabet of another.

They tell their own stories of love and ambition, family and friendship, and how the Great War and its aftermath tore them apart. It reads like an epic unfolding through the eyes and voices of ordinary people, humane, evocative, humorous and… show more.

I often admire writers, and it is very rare for me to be outright jealous of one. But I was with this astonishing book. It was intimately epic in the complete sense. We focus on a wonderful cast of characters who lived in a small village in southern Turkey in the early 20th century for many years.

You fall in love with them, and they make you laugh out loud. Then, you are heartbroken as their world is destroyed by ceaseless war. Brutal, romantic, hilarious, and completely tragic, this novel pulls you apart. I felt I knew them all well… show more.

This novel elegantly captures the truth that the past was inhabited mostly by “ordinary” people, many of whom are anything but ordinary.

I feel that history should tell their stories, not just those of emperors, generals, and “great men.” Through the stories of a Greek village in Turkey around 1900, I learned vividly about the interconnected lives of Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Jews, and others in the late days of the Ottoman Empire and shattering effects of World War I.

The book narrates the atrocities of trench warfare and the human cost and trauma of war with compassion, humor, and a… show more.

After traveling to Turkey the first time, I was steered into this book by a friend and found it to be the best modern combination of historical and fiction writing in combination I have read. The author’s amazing use of language and dynamic characters and storylines detailing how the modern nation of Turkey emerged opened my eyes and interest to the larger and longer past I had witnessed there firsthand. This book and my trip fueled my interest in the thousand-year Byzantine Empire, its importance, and its neglect in our knowledge of a place and a past that is too… show more.

I was drawn to this book because it is set in a part of Turkey that I love. There is such charm to the characters who live simple lives until they’re upended by other people’s wars and political decisions. I felt I could relate to them through people I’d actually met, even more so when I visited the “ghost village” of Kayakoy, which inspired de Berniere’s village. The stories of the fictional villagers, alternately touching, funny, brutal, and tragic, are mingled with that of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern, secular Turkey, a man of great vision and leadership,… show more.