There's a bit of an introduction to contemporary Albanian literature here, and a sweeping overview (with lots of translated excerpts) here.

But in this post, I just want to highlight a few interesting snippets:

1. Ismail Kadare (born 1936)

That first article I mentioned is entitled: Albanian Literature Beyond Kadare's Long Shadow. Its author, Barbara Halla, explains: "It feels impossible to avoid him. Kadare is the only Albanian author speculated as a potential winner for the Nobel in Literature... While other Albanian writers struggle to find English translators, Kadare’s books flood the English-language market. It would perhaps be improper to complain of Kadare’s success and his place in world literature. He has contributed immensely to the field, writing novels that portray Albanian history from Medieval times to the present, while also producing essays and studies in the field of Albanology. Not to mention the recognition he has brought to Albania abroad, where for many to speak of Albania is inherently to speak of Kadare. But Kadare’s success is unique in Albanian literary history. And with its singularity come certain dangers and drawbacks, common to all national cultures that are represented through the often-homogenous lens of a single figure."

Now (confession time), I'd never heard of him until about a week ago, when I started to read up on Albanian literature, but he's big. He won the inaugural Man Booker International prize in 2005 "for his full catalogue of work". And he certainly went through the mill with the former regime: "Half a dozen of Kadare's books were banned. 'That ended up being counterproductive for the regime,' he said, 'because all those people who had already read them them started studying them seriously to see just why they were so subversive. So book bans actually played a big role in the emancipation of the country.'" He sought political asylum in Paris in 1990.


I'd been keen to visit the small house museum located in one of the apartments in Tirana that he occupied with his family. Very recent sources said it was open.

But we could find no entrance...



So that's another of life's little mysteries. Next time...

2. Enver Hoxha (1908-85)...

This is a strange and salutary story...

From 1944 until his death, this man was the absolute ruler of Albania. As his paranoia grew (his last trip beyond Albania's borders was in 1961), so did his attempt to keep his country in total isolation. It's ironic, then, as Kristoffer Leandoer points out, that his library amounted to some 30,000 volumes... And we're not talking Marx and Lenin (not represented, according to the catalogue). We're talking Proust, Sartre, Camus, Graham Greene, John Le Carre, and detective stories (Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, P.D. James...) We're talking Romain Gary, whose mother obsession, says Leandoer, matched Hoxha's... In short, a substantial part of the library consists of titles the possession of which would have landed other Albanians in jail.

Hoxha, apparently, was always reading... And he wrote, too (more than 60 volumes...).


Leandoer continues: "His wife Nexhmilje used the books to persuade him to move into a bigger house: 'Finally, you may have room for your library.' Vila 31, still in place, was no luxury residence, the furniture mainly provided by prefabricated Italian low-end-to-middle-range chains... The exception to the rule was the lavish book shelves, built in situ in thirties style by the most skilled domestic artisans that could be found."

Like Leandoer, I find it worrying that you can expose yourself to so much input, from all sorts of directions and all sorts of fine minds, and still remain completely closed and tunnel-visioned...





Two more things. Hoxha had a curious relationship with Ismail Kadare... Only one of his books figures in the head of state's library (in French translation): "Yet we know that Hoxha followed that authorship very closely, and that the freedom of Kadare was hanging by a single thread, probably saved by his growing international reputation: you get the impression that through decades there is a kind of game played between the two of them, the dictator and the writer, a game with extremely high stakes..."

Another author who fascinated Hoxha was Byron... According to Albanian scholar Peter Prifti, as quoted by Suzan Hyssen, Albania's ruler was a great fan of the English lord, citing him as one of his favourite writers... So, moving on...

3. Byron (1788-1824)...

This time, we know for sure he was actually here...

He arrived in September 1809. Albania was then part of the Ottoman empire, but was ruled on a day-to-day basis by former brigand Ali Pasha.


Byron's travels in Albania inspired the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (which made his name as a poet).

Albania also features in Byron's letters.

4. Edward Lear (1812-88)

This was a surprise...

Lear (famous for the Owl and the Pussy Cat, and the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, and the Dong with the Luminous Nose) travelled to Albania in the autumn of 1848. Unlike Byron (as far as I can tell), he not only visited Tirana, but also painted it (I hadn't even realized he was a painter...).

His journeyings informed Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, published in 1851 (there's an excerpt here).

And some of his paintings are reproduced here.


I must admit I enjoy ferreting out these literary links. They're always high in curiosity value.