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Albania’s world-renowned novelist Ismail Kadare dies at 88
The Hindu
Renowned Albanian novelist and poet Ismail Kadare, known for his works under communist Albania, dies at 88 in Tirana.
Albanian novelist and poet Ismail Kadare, whose irreverent works from inside communist Albania earned him international renown and repression from the country's dictatorship, has died in Tirana, his publishing editor said on July 1. He was 88.
Mr. Kadare won a number of international awards, and had long been mentioned as a possible contender for the Nobel Prize in literature.
Albanian President Bajram Begaj praised Mr. Kadare as the country's “spiritual emancipator.”
“Albania and Albanians lost their genius of letters ... the Balkans (lost) the poet of its myths, Europe and the world (lost) one of the most renowned representatives of modern literature,” Mr. Begaj said in a statement released by his office.
Onufri Publishing House editor Bujar Hudhri said the author died on July 1 morning after being rushed to a hospital.
A nurse at the hospital said he was taken to the emergency room after suffering cardiac arrest. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
Mr. Kadare became internationally recognized after his novel “The General of the Dead Army” — which later inspired a film starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anouk Aimee — was published in 1963. The book told the story of an Italian general, who was sent to Albania to find and repatriate the bones of thousands of his compatriots killed there during World War II, and who dwells on the futility of the task and of war.
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