Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare was an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. Kadare received international acclaim and won the Man Booker International Prize in 2005. His works often reflect life under communism, yet he asserted, "I am not a political writer."

Kadare was born in Gjirokastër, an Ottoman fortress near the Greek border. He published his first poetry collection at 17. After studying at Tirana University, he received a scholarship to study literature at the Gorky Institute in Moscow. Returning to Tirana in 1960, his initial novel about two students was banned after an excerpt appeared in a magazine. Reflecting on this, Kadare said, "A writer would not have known he should not write about the falsification of history."

Kadare published The General of the Dead Army, his first novel, which brought him international fame in 1963. This book tells the story of an Italian general sent to Albania to retrieve Italian war dead from the Second World War. The general questions the point of his mission, asking, "Can a pile of bones still have a name?" Though Albanian critics attacked the novel for diverging from socialist realism, it caused a sensation in France.

Throughout his career, Kadare navigated the fine line between artistic expression and political survival. His political poem, The Red Pashas, was banned in 1975. To counter this, he portrayed Enver Hoxha favorably in his 1977 novel, The Great Winter. In 1981, The Palace of Dreams, an allegory on totalitarianism, was banned within hours of publication. Despite these challenges, Kadare remained a prominent figure in the Albanian Writers' Union and was a delegate in the People's Assembly.

With the death of Hoxha in 1986, Albania began to experience tentative reforms. By 1989, as the Berlin Wall fell, Kadare advocated for change. In October 1990, citing threats from the Sigurimi (Albanian secret police), he fled to Paris and sought political asylum. Kadare stated, "The final thrust was the direct or indirect threats from the Sigurimi, which wanted to settle old scores."

In Paris, Kadare tackled totalitarianism more directly. His novella, The Blinding Order, explores an Ottoman sultan who decrees that subjects with the "evil eye" must be blinded. Another work, The Pyramid, depicts the Pyramid of Giza as a tool of control and suppression by a megalomaniac pharaoh.

Kadare's reputation continued to grow. He received the Légion d'Honneur and the inaugural Man Booker International Prize. However, his career faced criticism, with some labeling him an astute chameleon playing the rebel to excite Westerners.

Kadare's legacy endured despite controversy. The Siege (2008), about an Albanian fortress resisting the Ottoman army, was praised as a significant work of literature. Kadare insisted, "I am not a political writer. True literature has no political writers." In 2019, he returned to Tirana for the opening of a museum at his former apartment, stating, "My work obeyed only the laws of literature."