Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare DFK
Kadare, c. 1990s
Born	(1936-01-28)28 January 1936 Gjirokastër, Albania
Died	1 July 2024(2024-07-01) (aged 88) Tirana, Albania
Occupation	Novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, playwright
Nationality	Albanian; French[1]
Citizenship	Albania; Kosovo
Education	University of Tirana Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
Period	1954–2024
Genre	Subjective realism, dystopia, satire, parable, myth, fable, folk-tale, allegory, and legend.
Subjects	Albanian history, Albanian folk beliefs, Communism, Ottoman Empire, Totalitarianism
Notable works	The General of the Dead Army The Siege Chronicle in Stone The Palace of Dreams The File on H. The Pyramid Spiritus The Fall of the Stone City
Notable awards	Prix mondial Cino Del Duca 1992 Man Booker International Prize 2005 Prince of Asturias Award 2009 Jerusalem Prize 2015 Order of Legion of Honour 2016 Park Kyong-ni Prize 2019 Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2020
Spouse	Helena Gushi
Children	2, including Besiana
Parents	Halit Kadare Hatixhe Dobi
Relatives	Hoxhë Dobi (Great Grandfather)
Signature

Ismail Kadare (Albanian: [ismaˈil kadaˈɾe]; 28 January 1936 – 1 July 2024) was an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright.^[2] 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.^[3]

Kadare is regarded by some as one of the greatest writers and intellectuals of the 20th and 21st centuries, and as a universal voice against totalitarianism.^[4][5][6] Living in Albania during a time of strict censorship, he devised stratagems to outwit Communist censors who had banned three of his books, using devices such as parable, myth, fable, folk-tale, allegory, and legend, sprinkled with double-entendre, allusion, insinuation, satire, and coded messages. In 1990, to escape the Communist regime and its Sigurimi secret police, he defected to Paris. From the 1990s he was asked by both major political parties in Albania to become a consensual President of the country, but declined. In 1996, France made him a foreign associate of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and in 2016, he was a Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur recipient.

Kadare was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 15 times. In 1992, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca; in 1998, the Herder Prize; in 2005, the inaugural Man Booker International Prize; in 2009, the Prince of Asturias Award of Arts; and in 2015, the Jerusalem Prize. He was awarded the Park Kyong-ni Prize in 2019, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2020.^[7] His nominating juror for the Neustadt Prize wrote: "Kadare is the successor of Franz Kafka. No one since Kafka has delved into the infernal mechanism of totalitarian power and its impact on the human soul in as much hypnotic depth as Kadare." His writing has also been compared to that of Nikolai Gogol, George Orwell, Gabriel García Márquez, Milan Kundera, and Balzac. His works have been published in 45 languages. The New York Times wrote that he was a national figure in Albania comparable in popularity perhaps to Mark Twain in the United States, and that "there is hardly an Albanian household without a Kadare book".

He was the husband of author Helena Kadare and the father of United Nations Ambassador and UN General Assembly Vice-president Besiana Kadare. In 2023 he was granted citizenship of Kosovo, by president Vjosa Osmani.^[8][9]