"Erotic, paranoiac and lightly fantastical." --The Wall Street Journal
"Ismail Kadare's readers are astonished every year when the Nobel committee overlooks him. . . . A Girl in Exile, published in Albanian in 2009, may rekindle the worldwide hopes." --The New York Times Book Review
During the bureaucratic machinery of Albania's 1945-1991 dictatorship, playwright Rudian Stefa is called in for questioning by the Party Committee. A girl--Linda B.--has been found dead, with a signed copy of his latest book in her possession.
He soon learns that Linda's family, considered suspect, was exiled to a small town far from the capital. Under the influence of a paranoid regime, Rudian finds himself swept along on a surreal quest to discover what really happened to Linda B.
"At a time when parts of the world are indulging nostalgia for communism, Kadare's novel confronts the infuriating impossibility of art in an autocratic, anti-individualist system." --The Washington Post
"A Girl in Exile confirms Kadare to be the best writer at work today who remembers--almost aggressively so, refusing to forget--European totalitarianism." --The New Republic
"Erotic, paranoiac and lightly fantastical." --The Wall Street Journal
"Ismail Kadare's readers are astonished every year when the Nobel committee overlooks him. . . . A Girl in Exile, published in Albanian in 2009, may rekindle the worldwide hopes." --The New York Times Book Review
During the bureaucratic machinery of Albania's 1945-1991 dictatorship, playwright Rudian Stefa is called in for questioning by the Party Committee. A girl--Linda B.--has been found dead, with a signed copy of his latest book in her possession.
He soon learns that Linda's family, considered suspect, was exiled to a small town far from the capital. Under the influence of a paranoid regime, Rudian finds himself swept along on a surreal quest to discover what really happened to Linda B.
"At a time when parts of the world are indulging nostalgia for communism, Kadare's novel confronts the infuriating impossibility of art in an autocratic, anti-individualist system." --The Washington Post
"A Girl in Exile confirms Kadare to be the best writer at work today who remembers--almost aggressively so, refusing to forget--European totalitarianism." --The New Republic
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