The General of the Dead Army: A Novel - Hardcover

Kadare, Ismail

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559707909 ISBN 13: 9781559707909

Publisher: Arcade Pub, 2008

Synopsis

Book by Kadare, Ismail

About this title

Review:

The General of the Dead Army, Ismail Kadare's meditation on the consequences of war, is a hugely moving account of duty and loss. It is 20 years since the end of World War II and an Italian army general is sent to Albania to search again for the bodies of those who lost their lives in the campaign. He is armed with maps, lists, measurements, and dental and other records. He tours the countryside organizing digs and disinterments and, as he tries to find the dead sons of forgotten families, he wonders at the sense, and scale, of his task. He talks and argues with the curt Italian priest who is accompanying him. He finds his footsteps followed, sometimes anticipated, by a fellow general who is also looking for bodies--the bodies of his German countrymen. He struggles with the Albanian countryside, weather, laborers who work for him, and peasants who watch their work. And he fights the despair that grows as the size, scope, and, ultimately, the hopelessness of his task becomes ever more apparent.

Kadare's plaintive novel is a consistently heartfelt lament to all those who have died and been affected by war, but it is also a beautiful work displaying the skills that make him one of the great modern European writers. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk

About the Author:

Ismail Kadare is the winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize, and is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most important writers of our time. Translations of his novels have been published in more than forty countries. He divides his time between Paris, France, and Tirana, Albania.

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcade Pub
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1559707909
• ISBN 13: 9781559707909
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272