Chronicle in Stone
Ismail Kadare
The story of a young Albanian and a primitive Albania awakening into the modern world
'Where are we going, where are they taking us?' WWII is about to start, but life for a young boy in a small town in Albania is still a game. Yet, as the country falls to the Italians, then the Greeks, then eventually to the Nazis, and is mercilessly bombed by the British, the boy grows up.
In a seamless mosaic of dreams and games, Kadare's young narrator both reflects and distorts events as his ancient, magical home town and his own innocence and sense of wonder are lost forever in the madness and brutality of the war. A disturbing mix of tragedy, comedy, politics and sexuality, Chronicle in Stone is a fascinating early masterpiece from the winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize.
Praise for Chronicle in Stone:
'A writer who maps a whole culture--its history, its passion, its folklore, its politics, its disasters. He is a universal writer in a tradition of storytelling that goes back to Homer.'
Peter Carey
'Chronicle in Stone is stunning, the quintessential tale of war seen through a child's eyes.'
Los Angeles Times
'Sophisticated and accomplished in its poetic prose and narrative deftness.'
New Yorker
Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare was born in 1936 in Gjirokaster, in the south of Albania. He studied in Tirana and Moscow, returning to Albania in 1960 after the country broke ties with the Soviet Union. He became a journalist and published poet, and his first novel, The General of… »
