This book has been a wonderful read. The story will take you back and forth from the poet / philosopher Rumi's times to today.
It is published by Penguin group and you can read the summary & an interview with the author from Penguin web page.
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Berniers
Birds Without Wings will tell you the story of the last years of Ottoman Empire - the first truly multinational - state government of the world from 1900 to 1923. It is a great story written with much care to depict how today's Turkey was formed and how different cultures formed Ottoman Empire and the base of today's Turkish Republic.
A quote from a 2005 interview with Louis de Bernier;
'The point is, under the Ottoman regime tolerance was compulsory. They had no toleration of intolerance because everyone was sat on more or less fairly and equally heavily; there wasn’t much trouble between the ethnicities and the religions.'
Another quote from LdB from the same interview is very relevant to the events that happen since May 31, 2013 in Turkey. He says 'I know sometimes you have mortal duty to resist oppression, that’s it.'
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