Editions

Birds Without Wings

Birds Without Wings

Set against the backdrop of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, Birds Without Wings traces the fortunes of one small community in south-west Anatolia - a town in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully for centuries.

When war is declared and the outside world intrudes, the twin scourges of religion and nationalism lead to forced marches and massacres, and the peaceful fabric of life is destroyed. Birds Without Wings is a novel about the personal and political costs of war, and about love: between men and women; between friends; between those who are driven to be enemies; and between Philothei, a Christian girl of legendary beauty, and Ibrahim the Goatherd, who has courted her since infancy. Epic in sweep, intoxicating in its sensual detail, it is an enchanting masterpiece.

'A mesmerising patchwork of horror, humour and humanity' Independent

Reviews

  • A more ambitious novel than Captain Corelli, and a better one

    Financial Times

  • A mesmerising patchwork of horror, humour and humanity

    Independent

  • A magnificent, poetic, colossal novel... Superbly written... It is, in every sense, a sublime book

    Irish Times

  • His most serious and ambitious achievement to date

    Times Literary Supplement

  • Pleasurable... Like Steinbeck, de Bernières deserves praise for his imaginative sympathy

    Independent on Sunday

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About the Author

Louis de Bernières

Louis de Bernières is the bestselling author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book in 1995. His most recent books are So Much Life Left Over and The Dust That Falls From Dreams, the short story collection Labels and the poetry collection The Cat in the Treble Clef.

Louis de Bernières

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