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Ismail Kadare, the renowned Albanian novelist and playwright who rebelled against the Albanian Communist regime through his work, has died of a heart attack in a Tirana hospital. He was 88 years old.
Prime Minister Edi Rama paid tribute to the author as a “monument to Albanian culture.”
Kadare is a novelist. General of the Army of the Dead It was published in 1963 under the regime of dictator Enver Hoxha.
He is the recipient of several global awards, including the Man Booker International Prize in 2005, the Prince of Asturias Arts Prize in 2009, the Jerusalem Prize in 2015, and the American Literary Medal in 2023 for lifetime contribution to international writing.
He also wrote poetry, essays and screenplays, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 15 times, once saying of media reports about him being a potential winner, “A lot of people think I’ve already won it.”
In 1975, he wrote the satirical poem ” Red PashaWhile working on “Plan for the Establishment of a Communist Government in Albania,” which targeted Albania’s communist bureaucracy, Kadare was sent to do manual labor in remote villages in central Albania.
Three of his books were subject to Albanian censorship and he received threats for criticizing the government and calling for democracy, so he sought political asylum in France in 1990. Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded him the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor during a visit to Tirana.
“Albania and the Albanian people have lost a literary genius and a spiritual liberator, the Balkans have lost a mythical poet and Europe and the world have lost one of the most outstanding representatives of modern literature,” Albanian President Bayram Begaj said in a statement.