Mustapha Kemal Bonaparte?

Geraldine Bedell on Louis De Berniere's new book: "[It] is, pretty obviously, an attempt at a modern War and Peace, with Kemal Ataturk standing in for Napoleon. It is perfectly possible that it won't sell as well as Captain Corelli. It's very long, the Turkish names look more forbidding than the Greek, the history and geography of the collapse of the Ottoman empire are unfamiliar (where does Thrace begin and end exactly?) and, most significantly, there is no single central story, no Pelagia and Corelli, to carry the reader through."
I'm not sure how I'll hold up through all its 625 pages, but I did like the first line: "The people who remained in this place have often asked themselves why it was that Ibrahim went mad." And to the Babu, who's used to the twists and turns of Indian names ("Gopijanaballabapodhorenopankajashankaroranjanabagchi" was one of the more celebrated, if fictitious, Bengali names I came across in my misspent youth), Turkish names are a breeze. Karatavuk? No problem. Philotei? Perfectly normal. Mihrimah Efendim? Poetic. And if you're going to complain about names like Ibrahim or Charitos, you are clearly meant never to stray from fiction featuring characters with names like Jane and Dick.