TIRANA.- He writer Albanian Ismail Kadaré, author of a monumental work on tyranny communist Enver Hoxha, died today – July 1 – at the age of 88 yearshis editor and the hospital where he was being treated told AFP.
“Kadare died of a heart attack,” the Tirana hospital said. “He arrived without signs of life and doctors performed cardiac massage on him, but he died at around 06:40 GMT, 08:40 local time,” the hospital said.
Literary interests of the writer
An ethnographer and sarcastic novelist who alternated the grotesque and the epic, Kadaré explored the myths and history of his country to dissect the mechanisms of totalitarianism, a universal evil.
Albania lived for decades under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, one of the most closed in the world.
“The communist hell, like any other hell, is suffocating,” the writer told AFP in one of his last interviews, in October.
“But in literature, that becomes a vital force, a force that helps you survive, to overcome the dictatorship with your head held high,” he said.
“Literature gave me everything I have, it was the meaning of my life, it gave me the courage to resist, happiness, the hope to overcome everything,” he explained, already weakened, from his home in Tirana, the Albanian capital.
Source: AFP
