Birds Without Wings
Acclaim for Louis de Bernières’
BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Quite astonishing and compulsively readable…. [De Bernières’] subtly differentiated characters attach themselves to us and won’t let go.”
—
Los Angeles Times Book Review
“An absorbing epic…. De Bernières [is] adept at juxtaposing brutality with episodes of high comedy or romance.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“With a book as rich as
Birds Without Wings
… we’re free to sit back and enjoy a huge story well told.”
—
The Gazette
(Montreal)
“De Bernières has unquestionably crafted a masterpiece.”
—
The Chronicle Herald
(Halifax)
“A sweeping account of the rise of modern Turkey and the last days of the Ottoman Empire. In an intensely personal way, [de Bernières] shows how these historic changes affected the inhabitants of Eskibahçe … and in a more global way … how misplaced imperial aspirations and gratuitous war can devastate ordinary people.”
—
Newsday
“A literary triumph…. Louis de Bernières [may be] the next Leo Tolstoy.”
—
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“The most eagerly awaited novel of the year…. A mesmerizing patchwork of horror, humour and humanity.”
—
Independent
(UK)
“Louis de Bernières has the startling and wonderful gift of being able to take a history lesson and make it personal, engaging and consequential to the reader….
Birds Without Wings
is a fascinating trip to an exotic, impassioned land struggling to give birth to a nation in the early 20th century. It fairly pushes a cup of sweet tea into your hand and bids you sit under a tree at the centre of a dusty, overlooked Anatolian town that’s not quite Turkish, not quite Greek…. Given the current state of world affairs, it is a much-needed—and gripping—examination.”
—
Calgary Herald
“De Bernières is at his finest when he allows us to experience the hardships and horrors through the lives of the villagers. He writes movingly of the battle of Gallipoli from the Turkish point of view, and the brutal, dehumanizing conditions of trench warfare.”
—
The Seattle Times
“Fine-grained prose that moves with the measured grace of a 19th century novel.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“An absorbing read about a remote but captivating time. The Ottoman world’s break-up is a rich, poignant story, and Mr. de Bernières is a good storyteller.”
—
The Economist
“Unites the chimerical poetry of Gabriel García Márquez with the fine-grained domesticity of Trollope…. De Bernières … can move seamlessly from humour to poignancy and from easy charm to a searing anger.”
—
Financial Times
“Enchanting…. At once intimate and sweeping…. At a time when the hypocrisy of modern invasions and of simplistic caricatures of other faiths circulates all too easily, this book offers a timely message to us all.”
—
The Sydney Morning Herald
“Bears de Bernières’ literary hallmarks—vast emotional breadth, dazzling characterization, [and] rich historical detail … swerving between languid sensuality and horror, humour and choking despair.”
—
Scotland on Sunday
“Operatic…. Splendid, lyrical…. De Bernières is a writer who can make you want to turn the page to find out what happens…. He has a blockbuster audacity in bringing together elements that work.”
—
The Age
“Stunning…. Haunting…. Both exotically remote and tragically relevant…. So much is remarkable about this novel, from the heft of its history to the power of its legends…. A deeply rewarding work.”
—
The Anchorage Press
Louis de Bernières
BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS
Louis de Bernières’ first three novels are
The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts
(Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best First Book Eurasia Region, 1991),
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord
(Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best Book Eurasia Region, 1992), and
The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman
. The author was selected by
Granta
as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. His fourth novel,
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best Book, in 1995. His last book was
Red Dog
, published in 2001.
Also by Louis de Bernières
The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord
The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World
Red Dog
In the grand scheme of things, this book is necessarily dedicated to the unhappy memory of the millions of civilians on all sides during the times portrayed, who became victims of the numerous death marches, movements of refugees, campaigns of persecution and extermination, and exchanges of population.
More personally, it is also dedicated to the memory of my maternal grandfather, Arthur Kenneth Smithells, of Nelson Battalion, the Royal Naval Division, who was severely wounded at Gallipoli, and in whose steps I trod while researching part of this novel.
Manet in pectus domesticum
.
THE CAT
She was licking
the opened tin
for hours and hours
without realising
that she was drinking
her own blood.
Spyros Kyriazopoulos
CONTENTS
1
The Prologue of Iskander the Potter
2
Iskander the Potter Remembers the Birth of Philothei
3
Mustafa Kemal (1)
4
I am Philothei (1)
5
Exiled in Cephalonia, Drosoula Remembers Philothei
6
Mustafa Kemal (2)
7
The Dog
8
I Am Philothei (2)
9
Mustafa Kemal (3)
10
How Karatavuk and Mehmetçik Came to Be Called Karatavuk and Mehmetçik
11
Ibrahim Gives Philothei a Goldfinch
12
The Proof of Innocence (1)
13
The Proof of Innocence (2): A Bad Start
14
The Proof of Innocence (3): Mariora Returns to the Light
15
The Proof of Innocence (4): The Message to Mariora
16
Mustafa Kemal, Infantry Lieutenant 1474 (4)
17
Of Reading and Writing
18
I Am Philothei (3)
19
The Telltale Shoes
20
Mustafa Kemal (5)
21
I Am Philothei (4)
22
Ayse Remembers Tamara
23
Tamara’s Refuge
24
I Am Philothei (5)
25
Tales from the Journey to Smyrna
26
Mustafa Kemal (6)
27
The Tyranny of Honour
28
The Humiliation of Levon the Armenian
29
I Am Philothei (6)
30
Mustafa Kemal, His Own Policeman (7)
31
The Circassian Mistress (1)
32
The Circassian Mistress (2)
33
The Circassian Mistress (3)
34
Rustem Bey and Leyla Hanim
35
I Am Philothei (7)
36
A Cure for Toothache
37
Mustafa Kemal (8)
38
Exiled in Cephalonia, Drosoula Remembers Leyla and Philothei
39
The Seduction of Rustem Bey
40
The Veiling of Philothei
41
An Embarrassing Question
42
Mustafa Kemal (9)
43
I Am Philothei (8)
44
In Which a Playful Conversation Takes a Bad Turn
45
The Humiliation of Daskalos Leonidas
46
Mustafa Kemal (10)
47
I Am Philothei (9)
48
Of Righteousness and Wrongdoing
49
Mustafa Kemal (11)
50
The Exchange
51
The Sadness of Rustem Bey
52
A Small Act of Kindness
53
The Removal
54
Olives
55
Mustafa Kemal (12)
56
The Letter from Karatavuk
57
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: Karatavuk Remembers (1)
58
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: Karatavuk Remembers (2)
59
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: Karatavuk Remembers (3)
60
Mustafa Kemal (13)
61
I Am Philothei (10)
62
The Letter to Karatavuk
63
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: Karatavuk Remembers (4)
64
Mustafa Kemal (14)
65
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: Karatavuk Remembers (5)
66
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: Fikret and the Goat (6)
67
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: The Death of Fikret (7)
68
Mustafa Kemal (15)
69
Karatavuk at Gallipoli: The End of the Campaign (8)
70
Tamara Receives a Visitor
71
The Death of Abdulhamid Hodja
72
Mustafa Kemal (16)
73
I Am Philothei (11)
74
Lieutenant Granitola’s Occupation (1)
75
Mustafa Kemal (17)
76
Lieutenant Granitola’s Occupation (2)
77
I Am Philothei (12)
78
Mustafa Kemal (18)
79
I Am Philothei (13)
80
Mustafa Kemal (19)
81
Fritz and Moritz Accidentally Change History
82
Mustafa Kemal (20)
83
Lieutenant Granitola Takes His Leave
84
Mustafa Kemal (21)
85
I Am Georgio P. Theodorou
86
Mustafa Kemal (22)
87
I Am Philothei (14)
88
Exodus
89
I Am Philothei (15)
90
Leyla Hanim’s Letter to Rustem Bey
91
Exiled in Cephalonia, Drosoula Remembers the Death of Philothei
92
I Am Ayse
93
I Am Ibrahim
94
Drosoula Remembers the Voyage into Exile
95
The Wounding of Karatavuk
1
What the New Imam Did
2
I Am Karatavuk
3
Pamuk
4
The Epilogue of Iskander the Potter
5
Mehmet the Tinsman and the New Copper Dish
6
The Epilogue of Karatavuk the Letter-Writer
Fethiye in the Twenty-first Century
CHAPTER 1
