Renowned Albanian writer, Ismail Kadare, dies at 88

• Published On: 01 July 2024 at 19:03

Ismail Kadare, their "greatest cultural monument," passed away from a heart attack at the age of 88 on Monday. The celebrated novelist was frequently predicted to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Leading the tributes was Prime Minister Edi Rama, while Vjosa Osmani, the president of adjacent Kosovo, praised Kadare on his "remarkable contribution to Albanian and world literature."

The author chronicled the bizarre fate of his country and its people under the paranoid communist dictator Enver Hoxha through the epic sweep of novels like "Broken April" and "The General of the Dead Army" by employing metaphor and subdued satire.

When Kadare left Albania for France in 1990, he was labelled a traitor by the communist authorities, although some said he had special treatment under Hoxha, who isolated the Balkan nation from the outside world.


He responded to the accusation with a bitter sarcasm.

"Whom was Enver Hoxha shielding me from? Opposing Enver Hoxha? In 2016, Kadare told AFP.

"Should have won Nobel" Rama made reference to this argument in his Facebook tribute to the novelist, praising him for the worlds, people, and feelings that "he conjured up with the ease of a magician" and calling them "extraordinary pleasures."


He claimed that he also enjoyed seeing the "mediocres" who ridiculed Kadare become envious of his success.

"Kadare was the gleam of creativity, of humanity, and of individual genius," stated Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. in the dictatorship's gloom.

He continued on X, saying that even "within the harshest political and artistic restrictions, he found ways to illuminate, to question, and to laugh."

Even though Kadare was always the perennial Nobel bridesmaid, the judges said that his storytelling "goes back to Homer" when he was awarded the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005 for his life's work.

Kadare "should have been given the Nobel," according to British author and biographer Nicholas Shakespeare. Alastair Campbell, the former right-hand man of former prime minister Tony Blair, also praised the writer on X, calling Kadare "such a great writer."

"Magician" - Lea Ypi, an award-winning memoirist from Albania who wrote "Free," shared on social media that he was a "lifelong magician of words": "You taught me how to recite verses for the first time."

From the 1970s, Albanian literature gained international recognition thanks to the prolific Kadare, whose works have been translated into over 40 languages.


According to Persida Asllani, head of literature at the University of Tirana, "he reshaped both Albanian letters and society thanks to works published during those dark times (of dictatorship) and afterwards." She stated, "He may have left this world, but his work will continue to influence people."

He told AFP in one of his final interviews in October that writing enabled him to resist the oppression he endured.

He declared, "Like every other hell, the hell of communism was smothering in the worst sense of the word."

However, literature changed that into a power for life—one that allowed you to endure, rise above dictatorship, and prevail.

The writer, clearly feeble but still working, stated, "Which is why I am so grateful for literature because it gives me the chance to overcome the impossible."