Widely acclaimed Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare dies at 88
Acclaimed Albanian writer and longtime Nobel Prize contender Ismail Kadare, who penned novels like "Broken April" and "The General of the Dead Army" chronicling the fate of his country under the rule of communist dictator Enver Hoxha, died of a heart attack in Tirana on Monday aged 88. He had defected to France in 1990 and only recently returned to Albania.
Acclaimed Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare -- an eternal bridesmaid for a Nobel literature prize -- died Monday of a heart attack aged 88, his editor and a Tirana hospital told AFP.
Doctors tried to revive the writer when he was brought to the hospital with "no signs of life", but he was declared dead at 8:40 am (0640 GMT) local time, the hospital said.
Editor and publisher Bujar Hudhri confirmed his death.
Through the epic sweep of novels like "Broken April" and "The General of the Dead Army", he used metaphor and quiet sarcasm to chronicle the grotesque fate of his country and its people under the paranoid communist dictator Enver Hoxha.
Watch moreAlbania: A legacy of dictatorship
Despite being branded a traitor by Albania's communist leaders when he defected to France in 1990, Kadare was accused by some of enjoying a privileged position under Hoxha, who cut the Balkan country off from the rest of the world.
It was an accusation he dismissed with withering irony.
(AFP)
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