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Ismail Kadare was born in 1936 in the Albanian mountain town of Girokaster near the Greek border. He is Albania's best-known poet and novelist. He established an uneasy modus vivendi with the Communist authorities until their attempts to turn his reputation to their advantage drove him in October 1990 to seek asylum in France. He has been awarded the first ever Man Booker International Prize.
In France Kadare is regarded as one of the great European novelists, a Nobellist in waiting. Nor is this the only French connection: for some reason his work doesn't come to us in direct translation from the Albanian, but is first filtered through a French version. No matter: this grim, gaunt novel about a blood feud in a 20th-century society which is still essentially medieval is probably the place to start with Kadare. Review by Julian Barnes, whose books include 'England, England' (Kirkus UK)
