Book description
In Enver Hoxha's Albania, news was closely guarded and speculation
forever rife. When an engineer stepped on the foot of a visiting
Chinese man, a Diplomatic incident resulted, and couriers between
Tirana and Beijing carried back and forth annotated X-rays of The
Foot. Was the sudden tension between the two allies connected with the
punishment meted out to a group of Albanian tank officers? Were
Comrades Enver and Mao still in step on the sovereign role of the
Party?
The brittle nature of political realities is epitomised in a Gala
Concert in Beijing. A hand-picked audience of diplomats and party
officials see destiny for the fragile beast it is when, surveying the
Politburo boxes, they notice to their horror an Empty Chair.
Kadare - the author of 'one of the most complete visions of
totalitarianism ever committed to paper' (Vanity Fair) - has
penned a glimpse inside a seething melting pot of rumour and
reputation, as the morning's orthodoxies become heresies by dinner
time and the Sino-Albanian axis finally comes adrift.
ISMAIL KADARE, born in 1936 in the mountain town of Gjirokaster,
near the Greek border, is Albania's best-known poet and novelist.
Since the appearance of The General of the Dead Army in
1965, Kadare has published scores of stories and novels that makeup a
panorama of Albanian history linked by a constant meditation on the
nature of human consequences of dictatorship. Kadare's works brought
him into frequent conflict with the authorities from 1945 to 1985. In
1990 he sought political asylum in France, and now divides his time
between Paris and Tirana. he is the winner of the first ever Man
Booker International Prize.
Translated by Barbara Bray
