ISMAIL KADARE

El protagonista absoluto de "Abril quebrado" es el Kanun, ley de sangre no escrita que rige de forma inexorable la existencia de los montañeses de Albania. Por el Kanun, Gjorg Berisha se cobra la sangre de Zef Kryeqyqe, cuadragesima cuarta victima de una venganza que se prolonga ya durante setenta años, constituyendose a su vez en deudor. Como contrapunto a la historia que protagoniza Gjorg, Ismail Kadare traza la del viaje de bodas a estas asperas tierras del curioso escritor Besian Vorpsi, quien espera, ilusamente, observar esta realidad sin verse atrapado en ella. La presente edicion esta minuciosamente revisada por Ramon Sanchez Lizarralde de acuerdo con la edicion definitiva que de su obra acometio el autor, libre ya de trabas, a partir de que obtuviera asilo politico en Francia en 1990.Traduccion de Ramon Sanchez Lizarralde

La construcción fabulosa de una especie de reino de la muerte, de un infierno en el que los sueños y el inconsciente colectivo son analizados y censurados, se convierte en una de las mejores alegorías del poder totalitario levantadas por Ismail Kadare, asi como uno de sus mas perfectos logros narrativos. El joven Mark-Alem, vastago de los Quyprilli, influyente familia de procedencia albanesa y promotora de importantes reformas en el seno del Imperio Otomano, consigue un atractivo puesto de funcionario en el Palacio de los Sueños, inquietante organismo estatal al que cada ciudadano esta obligado a enviar por escrito un informe de lo soñado durante la noche. La presente edicion ha sido minuciosamente revisada de acuerdo con la edicion definitiva de su obra que acometio el autor, libre ya de trabas, a partir de que obtuviera asilo politico en Francia en 1990.Traduccion de Ramon Sanchez Lizarralde

Veinte años después de la derrota del ejército italiano en Albania, un general asume la misión de recuperar los cadáveres de sus compatriotas caídos allí en combate durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. En compañia de un capellan militar se traslada al vecino y accidentado pais, y emprende la penosa labor de localizar, desenterrar y reunir los despojos de aquel ejercito muerto. Atrapada en el barro, la oscuridad, las inclemencias del tiempo y la mirada desconfiada de los aldeanos, la pintoresca pareja y su peculiar empeño, en el que se mezclan los recuerdos y la amargura, sirven a Ismail Kadare para levantar una fabula en la que su penetrante y acida mirada no solo alumbra las razones de lo belico, las miseras aspiraciones que lo desencadenan y sus terribles resultados, sino tambien la idiosincrasia de su pais.Traduccion de Ramon Sanchez LizarraldeVeinte años después de la derrota del ejército italiano en Albania, un general asume la misión de recuperar los cadáveres de sus compatriotas caídos allí en combate durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. En compañia de un capellan militar se traslada al vecino y accidentado pais, y emprende la penosa labor de localizar, desenterrar y reunir los despojos de aquel ejercito muerto. Atrapada en el barro, la oscuridad, las inclemencias del tiempo y la mirada desconfiada de los aldeanos, la pintoresca pareja y su peculiar empeño, en el que se mezclan los recuerdos y la amargura, sirven a Ismail Kadare para levantar una fabula en la que su penetrante y acida mirada no solo alumbra las razones de lo belico, las miseras aspiraciones que lo desencadenan y sus terribles resultados, sino tambien la idiosincrasia de su pais.Traduccion de Ramon Sanchez Lizarralde

La llegada a Albania de un equipo investigador de fenómenos paranormales da pie a Ismaíl Kadaré para reconstruir un episodio escalofriante del inmediato pasado en el que se mezclan los muertos con los vivos, la leyenda con los expedientes judiciales, la memoria con la pesadilla, la realidad con la fantasmagoria. Novela de gran envergadura y riqueza literaria que alberga las mas reveladoras e inquietantes obsesiones y creaciones literarias del autor albanes, relato alucinante y a menudo aterrador, SPIRITUS invita a reflexionar, en el mundo desideologizado y desmemoriado de la posguerra fria, acerca de los mecanismos permanentes de terror utilizados por el poder y su accion destructora sobre el individuo.La llegada a Albania de un equipo investigador de fenómenos paranormales da pie a Ismaíl Kadaré para reconstruir un episodio escalofriante del inmediato pasado en el que se mezclan los muertos con los vivos, la leyenda con los expedientes judiciales, la memoria con la pesadilla, la realidad con la fantasmagoria. Novela de gran envergadura y riqueza literaria que alberga las mas reveladoras e inquietantes obsesiones y creaciones literarias del autor albanes, relato alucinante y a menudo aterrador, SPIRITUS invita a reflexionar, en el mundo desideologizado y desmemoriado de la posguerra fria, acerca de los mecanismos permanentes de terror utilizados por el poder y su accion destructora sobre el individuo.

"Lo queramos o no, nuestra humanidad, todos nosotros formamos parte del sistema de la guerra. Es ésta la mayor maldición, la vergüenza absoluta de nuestro planeta. Hace siglos que hemos caído en ese

At the heart of the Sultan's vast but fragile empire stands the mysterious Palace of Dreams: the most secret and powerful Ministry ever invented. Its task is to scour every town, village and hamlet to collect the citizens' dreams, then to sift, sort and classify them, and ultimately to interpret them, in order to identify the "master-dreams" that will provide the clues to the Empire's destinies and those of its Monarch. An entire nation's consciousness is thus tapped into and meticulously laid bare in the form of images and symbols of the dreaming mind. Kadare's "Palace of Dreams" stands as the symbol of the thought-police who have, through history, been the most effective instruments of oppression at the service of dictators.

When a daughter is brought home to her mother by a mysterious ghostly rider it sets off a chain of events that plunges an Albanian village into fear and mistrust. The regional captain, Stres, looks to unravel the mystery set against the struggle for the land between the churches of Rome and Byzantium, wanting to put an end to the resurrection rumour. At the core of the story is the Albanian promise made between a son and his mother, and the importance of loyalty to the values of a culture under attack.

In the early fifteenth century, as winter falls away, the people of Albania know that their fate is sealed. They have refused to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire, and war is now inevitable. Soon enough dust kicked up by Turkish horses is spotted from a citadel. Brightly coloured banners, hastily constructed minarets and tens of thousands of men fill the plain below. From this moment on, the world is waiting to hear that the fortress has fallen. The Siege tells the enthralling story of the weeks and months that follow of the exhilaration and despair of the battlefield, the constantly shifting strategies of war, and those whose lives are held in balance, from the Pasha himself to the technicians, artillerymen, astrologer, blind poet and harem of women that accompany him. Brilliantly vivid, as insightful as it is compelling, The Siege is an unforgettable account of the clash of two great civilisations. As a portrait of war, it resonates across the centuries and confirms Ismail Kadare as one of our most significant writers.

Two Irish-American scholars from Harvard journey to Albania in the 1930s with a tape recorder (a 'new fangled' invention) in order to record the last genuinely oral epic singers. Their purpose, they say, is to show how Homer's epics might have been culled from a verbal tradition. But the local Governor believes its an elaborate spying mission and arranges for his own spy to follow them. The two dedicated scholars realise only too late that they have stumbled over an ants' nest. This simple tale by Albania's most eminent and gifted novelist serves to lift the veil on one of the most secret and mysterious countries of modern Europe.

From the moment that Gjorg's brother is killed by a neighbour, his own life is forfeit: for the Kanun, the code of the blood feud that operates in the Albanian mountains, requires Gjorg to kill his brother's murderer and then in turn to become an outcast to be hunted down by the new victim's family. After lying in ambush and shooting his brother's killer, young Gjorg is entitled to thirty days' grace - not enough to see out the month of April. While the rites of death, bereavement, mourning and vengeance are fulfilled with traditional solemnity in the village, a visiting honeymoon couple, traveling to learn about the ways of the mountain folk, cross the path of the fugitive. The bride's heart goes out to Gjorg, and even these 'civilised' strangers from the city risk becoming embroiled in the fatal mechanism of vendetta.

Two Irish-American scholars from Harvard journey to Albania in the 1930s with a tape recorder (a 'new fangled' invention) in order to record the last genuinely oral epic singers. Their purpose, they say, is to show how Homer's epics might have been culled from a verbal tradition. But the local Governor believes its an elaborate spying mission and arranges for his own spy to follow them. The two dedicated scholars realise only too late that they have stumbled over an ants' nest. This simple tale by Albania's most eminent and gifted novelist serves to lift the veil on one of the most secret and mysterious countries of modern Europe.

Twenty years after the end of the Second World War, an Italian general is despatched to Albania to recover his country's dead. Once there he meets a German general who is engaged upon an identical mission, and their conversations brings out into the open the extent of their horror and guilt, newly exacerbated by their present task. As they descend from the callous trivialities of their gruesome business, past and present, to suffering self-disgust, the author gives us glimpses of the lives of the people whose graves they are unearthing.

Il 17 marzo di un anno imprecisato (ma prima dell''avvento del comunismo in Albania) il giovane Gjorg Berisha ha dovuto uccidere l''assassino di suo fratello per obbedire alla besa, un codice antico e spieiato che fissa, senza possibilita di deroga, modo tempo e prezzo di qualsiasi delitto. Dopo l''omicidio, perpetrato fra mille dubbi e tormenti, Gjorg avra un mese di tregua. Poi, per lui, la morte sara in agguato dietro ogni pietra, ogni angolo di strada... Ma la sua storia s''intreccia con quella di Besian e Diana, uno scrittore e la sua giovane, bellissima moglie, che sono partiti da Tirana per intraprendere un singolare viaggio di nozze tra le montagne. L''incontro fra Gjorg e i due sposi avra conseguenze cruciali: mettera in gioco l''amore di Diana per suo marito e, allo scadere della fatidica tregua, indurra Gjorg predatore e preda della donna, del suo volto incantato - a un''imprudenza fatale: in un "aprile spezzato" che spezzera la sua vita.

A fever dream of a novel where love, jealousy and obsession collide On the autobahn in Vienna a taxi leaves the carriageway and strikes the crash barrier, flinging its male and female passengers out of its back doors as it spins through the air. The driver cannot explain why he lost control; he only says that the mysterious couple in the back seat seemed to be about to kiss ...Set against the tumultuous backdrop of war and its aftermath in the Balkans, The Accident intimately documents an affair between two people caught in each other's webs. The investigation into their deaths uncovers a mutually destructive obsession that mirrors the conflicts of the region. A destabilising mixture of vivid hallucination and cold reality, Ismail Kadare's new novel is a bold and fascinating departure.