A review by danodog
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières

5.0

In the pantheon of my favourite books. Reading this while in Turkey helps but this was a masterpiece of storytelling. The inspiration for the book is based on Karakoy, the village had been a thriving community until the 1923 ‘population exchange’ - a result of the peace treaty of Lausanne at the end of the Turkish/Greek war. The Greek Orthodox population of Turkey were resettled in Greece and the Muslim population of Greece was resettled in Turkey. The story covers the 20-30 years prior to the exchange and goes from first person narrative of about 20 different characters and then to 3rd person narrative describing the life story of Mustafa Kemal who created the modern country of Turkey in 1923 (including changing the alaphabet to roman overnight!! can you imagine?) . de Bernieres is a master story teller using the town of Karakoy as a microcosm for Turkey to show the inhumanity of these government actions on people like ourselves who simply want to care for our family and community. It's a long read but worth the investment.