The renowned Albanian artist in Italy, Ermal Meta, has returned to Albania, this time not as a singer, but as a writer, to present his first book “Tomorrow and forever”. At the meeting held in the new “Tonin Harapi” hall of the “Jordan Misja” Artistic High School, Ermal Meta told the young people present how he came up with the idea to write this book. He said that during the years he lived in Italy, he felt an inner call from his country, until the moment came to take this step.

“I spent many years away from Albania, maybe 17, and every time I thought about my country, I felt the call of my blood, it was a very strong call, that in fact, it had the opposite effect, it made feel a kind of fear. Then, at some point I told myself that I couldn’t wait any longer to take this step, which I finally took and realized that I had lost a lot in the meantime, but it was not too late to remediate”, said Ermal Meta.

The mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, who was also present at the book promotion ceremony said that Ermal Meta’s book can serve as a manual for a great national reflection and how some things should be done better. Veliaj added that he hopes the book will have the success it had in Italy.

“This book can really serve as a handbook of a great national reflection, as a way to understand how we got here, and if there is a way to do some things better, if there is a way to come closer to each other, to understand that when we are together, we are many times more valuable than each one separately.”

Thanking Meta for bringing all together for that reflection, Veliaj added that he “really hoped that the book will have the success, it had in Italy – which of course, there, it may have seemed in a different way about what happened here on the other side of the Adriatic – but, for us, it is not an exotic narrative, rather it is something that relates to our personal history”, said Veliaj, during the promotion.

The book “Tomorrow and Forever” tells the story of a character named Kajan who grows up in the storm of the conflicts of the 20th century. The rights to turn the book into a movie have also been sold to producer Carlo degli Esposti-Palomar for a TV series.

/a.p./