A glorious new novel from the author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, set at a time when the modern world was just beginning to define itself.
Louis de Bernières' first three novels are The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best First Book Eurasia Region, 1991), Se-or Vivo and the Coca Lord (Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book Eurasia Region, 1992), and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. The author was selected as one of the Granta twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. Captain Corelli's Mandolin won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book, 1995. His most recent book is Red Dog.
I loved its rich, relaxed humanism and was much moved by this expa
nsive tale
*Boyd Tonkin, Independent*
it draws a big dramatic canvas embellished with jihad and passion,
religion and nationalism, and of course, lots of love
*Katherine Sale, Financial Times*
In the ten years since his international best seller Corelli's Mandolin, English novelist de Berni?res has truly steeped himself in the culture and history of southwestern Turkey. The result is an absorbing, polyvocal epic centered on a charming coastal Anatolian village where religious and ethnic harmony is shattered by World War I and the subsequent internecine slaughter during which Ottomans become Turks; Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox Christians become forced exiles, replaced by Greek-speaking Muslims from Crete; and Armenians become victims. This novel emphasizes the brutalities and stupidities of modern warfare (notably at the battle of Gallipoli) even more emphatically than de Berni?res's magic realist debut, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts. About a dozen characters tell their quasi-picaresque stories in short chapters interpolated by an amusing, highly anecdotal sketch of the brilliant career of Mustapha Kemal, later called Atat?rk, founder of the modern Turkish nation, who, in abolishing the fez "becomes the only dictator in the history of the world with a profound grasp of the semiotics of headwear." Vivid characterization, wry humor, believable bawdiness, pathos, and trenchant observations of the perils of empire and nation building make this a strongly recommended selection for all historical fiction collections. Mark Andr? Singer, Mechanics' Inst. Lib., San Francisco Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
I loved its rich, relaxed humanism and was much moved by this expa
nsive tale * Boyd Tonkin, Independent *
it draws a big dramatic canvas embellished with jihad and passion,
religion and nationalism, and of course, lots of love * Katherine
Sale, Financial Times *
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