Product Description
The Concert
Author: Ismail Kadare
Format: Paperback
A chilling portrait of life under Communist rule by Albania's most important writer
It's the 1970s and cracks are starting to appear in the alliance between China and its Communist cohort Albania. When an Albanian steps on the foot of a Chinese diplomat the tension cranks up - couriers between Tirana and Beijing carry annotated x-rays of the foot back and forth. The Chinese intend to punish their interfering little ally discreetly. But is the Sino-Albanian axis about to come adrift? This is Kadare's surreal black comedy about the inner sanctums of political power and the mysterious causal chains that transform ordinary lives.
'The Concert is a splendidly deep and serious novel that entirely transcends, as it were, its unremarkable outer garment... Kadare's achievement is to dramatise truthfully throughout. This is a book to read and re-read' — Guardian
About the Author
Ismail Kadare (1936–2024) is Albania's best-known novelist and poet. Translations of his novels have appeared in more than forty countries. He was awarded the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005, the Jerusalem Prize in 2015, the Park Kyong-ni Prize in 2019 and the Neustadt Prize in 2020.
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