Birds Without Wings

At 28 hours this unabridged edition is something of a marathon albeit a very enjoyable if disturbing one. I had read both the book and also the book of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, the story to which Birds Without Wings is the prequel, a few years earlier so I was revisiting familiar territory. Birds takes us through the confusing muddle that was the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of various Greek and Turkish Ottomans. The threads are woven into a story that is both beautiful and horrifying at one and the same time highlighting the barrenness of nationalism, the folly of war, the stupidity of politicians and how, when measured against the vastness and indifference of time, the efforts of humans, those birds without wings, are ridiculous in their insignificance. The section of the book covering The Gallipoli Campaign, written from the Ottoman side, is most poignant at this time one hundred years later. The narrator is excellent and really brings the story to life.
This is a story that needs to be approached with some thought and at a steady pace but it is very rewarding and one that will live with you for quite some time afterwards. Very highly recommended.

27 people found this helpful

A lovely story that is simply pleasure to the ears

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 The story is intertwined with historical references and events, primarily relating to Mustafa Kemal (the first president of Turkey).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!

10 people found this helpful

Very easy listening

One of the best stories I have ever heard. Fantastic!!!!! Very well narrated too. I recommend this story to everyone.

7 people found this helpful

Interesting historical setting, too many anecdotes

This is a mixed bag. There are a whole set of interesting characters, perhaps too many for an audiobook, but nevertheless you do feel emotionally attached to them eventually. The book is set at a point in history where most English speakers will be unaware of historic events at that time. History is, after all, written by the victors, and the Allies were defeated by the Turkish Ottomans at Galipoli and then roundly humiliated by Attaturk in the Turkish war of independence. How accurate De Bernieres' description of events is, I can't judge, but you do feel for all the victims of the attrocities that we being perpetrated by all sides during the setting off the book.
However, the style of the book is often ponderous and De Bernieres tells it through often rambling chapters narrated by key characters. These narratives do end up being repetitive at times and meander greatly from the main plot line leaving you wondering if the Editor should have been a bit more ruthless when the book came to press.
The performance is faultless and very clear.
Overall, this is an interesting book but one for someone that has a fair bit of patience.

5 people found this helpful

Fantastic story

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!

4 people found this helpful

Poor narration

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this audiobook to a friend. The narrator's 'pretend' voices/accents just grated. Everything sounded the same, and everything sounded dull.

If you’ve listened to books by Louis De Bernieres before, how does this one compare?

This was my first Louis de Bernieres book, read or listened to. I'd be willing to give another book by the same author a try, because it may well be that it was the narration that was dull, not the prose.

What didn’t you like about Christopher Kay’s performance?

It made me want to fall asleep. I don't know if it was because he was trying to do different voices for different characters, or because he was attempting a Greek/Turkish/Mediterranean accent, but I found listening dull.

Was Birds Without Wings worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

I tried over and over to get into it but gave up in the end. I really don't like doing that because usually if one perseveres the book grabs your interest and I don't like wasting a credit on a book I don't finish; I feel I haven't had my money's worth. Maybe this would be a better book if read by a different narrator, or if I read the actual book myself.

4 people found this helpful

An awful lot of description

This is one of those books that I feel I should have enjoyed and that maybe I'm to blame for being bored by it. I listened to hours and hours of detailed descriptions of scenery, clothing and customs. I'm all for creating atmosphere, but as a background to a story and not an end in itself. Far too many characters are introduced with names I can't remember. I kept wondering is anything actually going to happen. The prospect of 28 hours of this was too daunting and I gave up. The book has some of the same ingredients as the excellent Captain Corelli's Mandolin by the same author, but none of the magic and narrative drive.
I found the narration in put-on Turkish/Greek accents got irritating after a while.

16 people found this helpful

Not so entertaining but fascinating history

After a very slow start, this became more and more interesting. The description of the fighting at Gallipoli is equal to the best wartime literature I have read. The historical insight into the making of Turkey from the collapsing Ottoman Empire is brilliant. Yet more powerful than all this is the terrific sense of humanity that emerges from the descriptions of the villagers, for all their simplicity, ignorance and superstition.

The narration is brilliant. Unfortunately the accents are so well done they seriously grate. It helped a great deal to increase the speed to 1.15, just about the only time I have done that in a few hundred books I have listened to.

2 people found this helpful

Just a beautiful and hugely evocative story

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.

2 people found this helpful

Wonderful

amazing narrator fantastic story, depicts exactly the turkish character and the area a great classic, quite the best loved it

2 people found this helpful