A review by bookbuyingaddict
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières

5.0

Stunning book, hard going in the chapters explaining the wars between the Greeks & the Ottomen who became Turks, Very interesting reading the fictional account of Gallipoli , which I knew v little about. Without doubt the best part of the 555 pages for me were the characters and their storylines living in the village of Eskibache and following what becomes of them all, which of course is heart breaking in parts. As is reading the atrocities people afflict on their fellow man because they are from a different land or a different religion. If you are interested to know why Greeks and Turks hate each other so much this book goes some way to explain the history of that mistrust and hatred. All very sad & at the beginning Christians and Muslims Greeks, Turks & Armenians are happily living side by side. It's also enjoyable reading this book on an ereader just to see the many highlighted paragraphs, so many wonderful quotes such as "since those times of whirlwind the world has learned over and over again that the wounds of the ancestors make the children bleed ".
It's also a very poignant read due to our current world crisis of mass migration of people due to war and religious intolerance. We never seem to learn from our history . Not an easy read and very graphic and upsetting in places but in my opinion an absolute must ! I'm now going on to Re read the wonderful Captain Correllies Mandolin. 10/10