Albanian Writer Ismail Kadare Dies at 88

TIRANA, July 1

Albanian beloved author Ismail Kadare has died aged 88.
Widely regarded as the most important contemporary Albanian author, Kadare was born in 1939 in the southern city of Gjirokastra, the stone city that’s always there even when not mentioned in many of his works written in different times and places. Gjirokastra is the setting of Chronicle in Stone and many other stories written or rewritten over the years.
Kadare completed high school in Gjirokastra and later graduated in literature studies at Tirana University and Gorky Institute in Moscow.

Kadare is renowned for his novels, poetry, short stories, and essays. The literary work of Ismail Kadare has been translated into over 45 languages while he first gained international recognition with his novel ’The General of the Dead Army. In Albania, Kadare began to gain fame with his poems and his first important prose work is ‘The City without Ads’ (Qyteti pa Reklama). He was recognized for his storytelling, unique sense of humor, narrative style, and linguistic capabilities such as lexicon and vocabulary.

Read also: World Literature Today on Why Read Ismail Kadare