The book “Chronicle in stone” by the great writer Ismail Kadare has been published in the last few days in Polish, translated by Marek Jeziorski.

The book was published by the SEDNO Publishing House, while the publication was also accompanied by an introduction.

Gjirokastër, the city the writer grew up is the hero of the novel “Chronicles in stone” by Ismail Kadare, one of the most prominent contemporary world writers. The author portrays the personified beauty and drama of life in Gjirokastër. The events described in the book take place during the WWII in the years 1940-1943, in the city successively occupied by Italian, Greek and German troops. The story of a stone city and its inhabitants, seen through the eyes of a young boy, the author’s alter ego, is far from a classic autobiographical memoir. The boy tries to understand the mysterious city, constantly talking to it. The language of the city is its sounds and colors. Kadare is a master of the grotesque and subtle mystery, constantly using the poetic power of metaphor and vague allusion. A sensitive reader of the book, which seems to have little connection with Hoxha’s time of terror (the book was published in 1971), will be able to spot critical references to the dictatorship that destroys freedom and human dignity between the lines of the story.” highlighted in the book’s introduction.

Further in the introduction it is said that “”Chronicle in stone” is an example of how outstanding literature can overcome the restrictions of the censorship of the communist state, without losing its artistic value and without running away from the difficult topics that concern ordinary people at the moment main part of their lives”.

The novel was translated directly from Albanian (some of Kadare’s books have been translated in Polish from French), which made the task of the translator even more demanding, because the author shows exceptional word-forming skills and boldly draws from the wealth of the native language.

Thanks to the initiative of the translator, Marek Jeziorski, an excellent connoisseur of the Albanian culture and language, this poetic novel, setting in motion the unlimited imagination of the reader, in the presentation of incomprehensible and mysterious issues, will be read from now on by many current lovers and new works of the Albanian author.

Until now, Kadare’s works have been translated into about 45 languages of the world. Kadare was awarded by the President of the Republic of Albania with the “Honour of the Nation” Order, and by France with the Orders Legion d’Honneur and Grand Officer of the Legion d’Honneur.

/a.p./