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|
The
2004 Award
|
|
Spring
Flowers, Spring Frost
by Ismail Kadare |
Nominated by:
Publisher
of Nominated Edition:
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| the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors |
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ABOUT
THE BOOK
|
| Albania,
at the end of the twentieth century, a decade after the fall of the Communist
regime. In a small town at the foot of the northern highlands, life appears
to go on as it always has, but people are in a state of shock. The robbery
of a local bank is seen as a sign of modern times and of westernization
in this backward Balkan land. At the same moment, the harsh blood-for-blood
law of the mountain folk, the fearsome Kanun, like everything else forbidden
under the fifty years of Communist rule, is emerging from hibernation. Other
strange things occur. Mysterious events that are two thousand years, two
centuries, or even two years old re-emerge in daily life. The marriage of
a girl and a snake is not just a legend but a news item--a cyclical event
recurring every few hundred years that is as much a part of the modern as
of the ancient world. In a desolate spot on the outskirts of the town, some
people search for the entrance to a tunnel that is said to lead to the secret
archives of the State. They're looking for evidence of their own crimes--or
of hypothetical crimes they might have committed. People say that the ghostly
likenesses of Hoxha, Brezhnev--and even Oedipus--have been seen lurking
there. Set against this Kafkaesque backdrop, a simple and sensual love story
between a painter and a girl stands out as light against dark. Spring Flowers, Spring Frost belongs to Kadare's purest classical vein, with its rich and sombre store of local traditions and universal themes. It's a love story for the "Albanian Spring," which is still so unsettled that no one can be sure a late frost won't descend and damage the delicate flowers of freedom regained. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
| Ismail Kadare, Albania's best-known poet and novelist, is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most important writers of our time. His previous novels are The Pyramid, The Three-Arched Bridge, The Concert, The Palace of Dreams, The File on H, and Elegy For Kosovo. |
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