Birds without Wings, a review by Syrian Ambassador to the United States

gess January 24th, 2008


The telling of grand historical events that shaped modern day Turkey and Greece are not the sole reason for my consideration of this epic novel as a great masterpiece, but also the fascinating lives of its fictional protagonists: more than ten principal characters and almost twenty secondary figures. By telling their interrelated and interwoven stories the reader is not only dazzled by the emotional intensity and human capability for conflicting and even contradicting sentiments and behavior, but is also humbled by the realization of how little understanding of the true nature of things we do actually have, and the false presumptions and prejudices that drive our lives. According to Iskander the potter, Man is a bird without wings and a bird is a man without sorrows. This sentence of wisdom captures the essence of the novel. All characters hope of fulfilling their dreams, but just like birds without wings, they fail to attain what they are wishing for, and unlike birds, Bernieres’s characers are full of sorrows.

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