The Great Winter (Albanian : Dimri i Madh) is a novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. It was first published in 1977. [1]
The action of the novel takes place during 1960/1961, when a crisis occurred in Albanian-Soviet relations. The protagonist of the novel is journalist Besnik Struga, who travels to Moscow as a translator for the Albanian delegation. In the capital of the USSR, he becomes a witness to the negotiations and intrigues that take place during an exceptionally harsh winter. The negotiations taking place in Moscow were largely reconstructed by Kadare based on authentic meeting protocols and witness accounts. The severance of Albanian-Soviet relations in November 1961, a consequence of the "Great Winter," becomes a surprising fact for several characters that Kadare has placed in his novel. [2] [3]
The first version of the novel, published in 1973, was titled "The Winter of Great Solitude" (Albanian: "Dimri i Vetmisë së Madhe"). Based on the motifs of the novel, a film titled "Face to Face" (Ballë për ballë), directed by Kujtim Çashku and Piro Milkani, was made in 1979.
Ismail Kadare was an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was a leading international literary figure and intellectual. He focused on poetry until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army, which made him famous internationally.
Albanian literature stretches back to the Middle Ages and comprises those literary texts and works written in Albanian. It may also refer to literature written by Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian diaspora particularly in Italy. Albanian occupies an independent branch within the Indo-European family and does not have any other closely related language. The origin of Albanian is not entirely known, but it may be a successor of the ancient Illyrian language.
The Pyramid is a 1992 novel written by Ismail Kadare. It is considered to serve both literary and dissident purposes. It is a political allegory of absolute political power.
Dritëro Agolli was an Albanian poet, writer and politician. He studied in Leningrad in the Soviet Union, and wrote primarily poetry, but also short stories, essays, plays, and novels. He was head of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania from 1973 until 1992. He was a leading figure in the Albanian Communist nomenklatura.
The Three Arched Bridge is a 1978 novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare. The story concerns a very old Albanian legend written in verses, the "Legjenda e Rozafes". The book differs from the original legend, as the legend calls for a castle that is being built, not a bridge.
The File on H. is a novel by the Albanian author Ismail Kadare. It was first published in Albanian in 1981 under the title Dosja H. Jusuf Vrioni translated the work to French in 1989 as Le Dossier H. David Bellos translated the French version into English in 1996. Both Kadare and Bellos have received praise in the English speaking world for the edition.
David Bellos is a British academic, translator and biographer. He is the Meredith Howland Pyne professor of French and comparative literature at Princeton University in the United States, and was director of its translation and intercultural communication programme from 2007 to 2019.
Face to Face is a 1979 Albanian drama film directed by Piro Milkani and Kujtim Çashku. The Movie is based on a novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare.
Bilal Xhaferi, often referred to as Bilal Xhaferri, was an Albanian writer and political dissident against the Albanian communist regime. He is seen as the representative poet of the Albanian Chameria.
The General of the Dead Army is a 1963 novel by then 26-year-old Albanian writer Ismail Kadare and his most critically acclaimed. He was encouraged to write it by Drago Siliqi, literary critic and director of the state-owned publishing house Naim Frashëri.
The Siege is a historical novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare, first published in 1970 in Tirana as Kështjella. It concerns the siege of an unnamed Albanian fortress by troops of the Ottoman Empire during the time of Skanderbeg, loosely based on the historical Siege of Krujë (1450). It was translated into French by Jusuf Vrioni and then from French into English by David Bellos. The novel was partly rewritten by Kadare after he moved from Albania to France in 1990; most of the changes were references to the Christian beliefs of the Albanian garrison, which had been cut from the original version by the communist censors.
Drago Siliqi was an Albanian poet, literary critic, and publisher. At the age of 14 he became a scout and then a partisan of the National Liberation Movement. He published his first collection of poetry, and then pursued university studies at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow.
Elegy for Kosovo is an Albanian novel written by Ismail Kadare.
The Palace of Dreams is a 1981 novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. Set ostensibly in the Ottoman Empire, but in a deliberately imprecise past shaded by myth and intended to represent the modern totalitarian state, The Palace of Dreams follows the rapid rise of Mark-Alem, a young Ottoman Albanian related to the powerful Köprülü family, within the bureaucratic regime of the title palace, a shady ministry whose objective is to gather, examine and interpret the dreams of the empire's subjects in order to uncover the master-dreams, which are believed to show the future destiny of the Sultan and the state.
The Successor is a 2003 novel by the Albanian writer and inaugural International Man Booker Prize winner Ismail Kadare. It is the second part of a diptych of which the first part is the novella Agamemnon's Daughter. The diptych is ranked by many critics among the author's greatest works.
Twilight of the Eastern Gods is a novel by the Albanian author Ismail Kadare. It was published in installments in Albania between 1962 and 1978, and published in full in 1981 in the French translation of Jusuf Vrioni. The English translation by David Bellos, published in 2014, was made from Vrioni's French.
The Traitor's Niche is a historical novel by the Albanian author Ismail Kadare. It was first published in Tirana, Albania, in 1978. The English translation by John Hodgson was published in 2017. It is part of a loose trilogy that includes The Three-Arched Bridge and The Palace of Dreams.
The Concert is a 1988 historical novel by Ismail Kadare. Originally titled Koncert në fund të dimrit in Albanian, the novel treats the events leading to the break in Albanian-Chinese diplomatic relations in the period 1972–1978.
The Vlora incident was a military confrontation between Albania and the Soviet Union in 1961. The Albanian People's Army blockaded the Vlora naval base, leading to the seizure of Soviet ships and equipment. The incident underscored the escalating diplomatic tensions between the two nations, ultimately resulting in the expulsion of Soviet forces from Albania.
The following is a list of the publications of Albanian writer Ismail Kadare (1936–2024).