Focus on Albania's Modern History Experiencing Foreign Domination and Stalinist Communist Dictatorship
Ismail Kadare, an Albanian writer who was a frequent contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, passed away on the 1st (local time), according to reports from AP News and others. He was 88 years old.
According to reports, Buyar Hudhri of Onufri Publishing, Kadare's editor, announced that he died that morning. The cause of death was a heart attack. Kadare suffered a heart attack that day and was taken to a hospital in Tirana, the capital of Albania, where he received cardiopulmonary resuscitation but ultimately passed away. The hospital stated that he was in cardiac arrest upon arrival.
Born in 1936 in Gjirokastra, southern Albania, Kadare published his first novel, The General of the Dead Army, in 1963. Through works such as The Chronicle of Stone, The Palace of Dreams, and Broken April, he exposed the tyranny of dictator Enver Hoxha and the modern history of Albania. He is regarded as a novelist who brought Albania, which experienced foreign domination and Stalinist communist dictatorship, out of historical oblivion.
In 1990, Kadare criticized the Albanian government while calling for democratization. Feeling threatened thereafter, he went into exile in France. He remained active in Paris until returning to Albania in 2022.
He received numerous awards including the 2005 Man Booker International Prize, the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award from Spain, the 2015 Jerusalem Prize, the 2019 Park Kyung-ni Literary Award, and the 2020 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He was also famous for being awarded the French Legion of Honour twice, France’s highest distinction. His novels, frequently cited as strong candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature, have been translated and published in 45 countries worldwide.
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