Birds Without Wings

Birds Without Wings by British author Louis de Bernieres is a historical novel about the making of modern-day Turkey – a nation that existed as part of the Ottoman Empire before the uprising of politician-general Mustafa Kemal. Told in a number of narrative voices, Birds Without Wings examines simultaneously the military and political measures that led to the founding of Turkey, the dramatic end to the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims of Greek, Armenian and Turkish descent, and the love story of protagonists Ibrahim and Philothei. The novel is set just before World War I, in the small village of Eskibahçe, now in present-day Turkey.

Birds Without Wings lacks a strong central plot due to its narrative structure, which features the voices of half a dozen narrators who live in Eskibahçe in the thirty-year stretch from the late nineteenth century to the mid-1920s. The village is located in Anatolia, a place where diverse inhabitants comingle with success – Muslims and Christians live together peacefully, forming lasting friendships, and priests and imams jest at each other in good faith. The town’s residents are as varied as they are eccentric, with poor and rich men living beside each other and residents accepting, for the most part, the wild ravings of a handful of madmen, who wander the town watching and listening.

Some of the primary narrators include Iskander the Potter, a local craftsman and keeper of the village's folklore and histories, and the beautiful girl Philothei, who is so stunning, she must be kept veiled to save the world from her allure. A prominent narrative running throughout the book is the story of Philothei's desperate love for the goatherd Ibrahim, and the struggle they face to maintain their passion for each other despite religious differences in a time of religious and social upheaval. Also featured are Karatavuk, Iskander's son, and Philothei's brother Mehmetçik, a veteran, who develops a fast friendship stretching across religious boundaries.



A number of other narratives thread through, particularly that of the wealthy local salesman and merchant, Rustem Bey, the town's landlord and self-proclaimed protector. Greatly affronted when he catches his wife, Tamara, cheating on him with another man, in retaliation, Bey murders her lover and condemns Tamara to death by public stoning. Tamara survives the stoning, but not before Bey leaves on a journey to distant Istanbul, where he finally finds happiness in love with his Circassian mistress Leyla. Violence against unfaithful women plays a large role in the text, from the veiled Philothei to the death of the flirtatious daughter of local Yusuf the Tall, who, directing his own son to kill his daughter, then mourns her death, labeling himself a murderer once he realizes his wrongdoing.

All the while, the region is in tumult. The story of the great leader and warrior Mustafa Kemal, otherwise known as Ataturk, plays a role in many of the narrators' lives. Kemal, a great nationalist, aims to unite Turkey as an independent nation, dismantling the more diverse and harmonious Ottoman Empire and causing the mass exodus of Greek and Armenian citizens persecuted by Kemal and his followers. De Bernieres depicts some of the brutally violent battles that Turks undergo in Kemal's effort to create a new nation, with an underlying message that makes it clear that both religious fanaticism and nationalism are forces that destroy peace, rather than creating it.

Through the lives of a number of eccentric characters, de Bernieres creates a world that is rapidly dying, narrating its slow decline. From Ali the Snowbringer who lives with his family in a hollowed out tree to a madman named “The Dog,” all the characters in this story are impacted in varying ways by the political upheaval Kemal brings to their homeland.



Louis de Bernieres is a British novelist and poet best known for his fourth novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which was published in 1994. The book was set in Cephalonia in Greece; since the book was written, the island has experienced an upswing in tourism from European nations and America, of which de Bernieres disapproves. De Bernieres has also written Red Dog, The Partisan's Daughter, and other novels, published two collections of poetry, and written a non-fiction introduction to the Book of Job. Before becoming a prominent novelist, de Bernieres worked as a teacher, mechanic, and motorcycle messenger, among other odd jobs. An avid musician, many of his novels include references to his favorite composers.