Ismail Kadare, Famous Albanian Novelist, Passes Away at 88

Ismail Kadare, the globally renowned Albanian novelist, passed away on Monday, July 2, at the age of 88 after being quickly transferred to a hospital in Tirana. Kadare was often mentioned as a potential Nobel Prize in Literature candidate. Bujar Begaj, the President of Albania, stated in a message: "Albania and Albanians have lost a literary genius, their spiritual liberator, the Balkans have lost the poet of their myths, and Europe and the world have lost one of the most famous representatives of modern literature." Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, also paid tribute to the writer on his Facebook page, stating that he is "a monument of Albanian culture." Bujar Hoxha, the editor of Onufri Publishing, confirmed that Ismail Kadare passed away on Monday morning. According to the Associated Press, a nurse at the hospital, who wished to remain anonymous, said the writer was transferred to the emergency room after suffering a cardiac arrest. Kadare gained international fame in 1963 with the publication of his novel "The General of the Dead Army" when Albania was still under the communist regime of Enver Hoxha. In the fall of 1990, just a few months before the fall of the communist regime following student protests, he fled Albania to France. He had recently returned to Tirana after living in Paris. Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, awarded him the Legion of Honor during a visit to the Albanian capital last year. France had previously elected him as a foreign member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Kadare wrote over 80 novels, plays, screenplays, poems, essays, and short story collections, which have been translated into 45 languages and have won numerous international awards, including the International Man Booker Prize in 2005, the Prince of Asturias Award for Arts in 2009, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2015. In addition to "The General of the Dead Army," other significant works by Ismail Kadare include "Hard Winter," "Moonlight," "Failed April," and "The Daughter of Agamemnon," many of which have been translated into Persian. Kadare was born in 1936 in the city of Gjirokastër, Albania, which then had a monarchy. He was the son of a postal worker and a housewife. The writer graduated in language and literature from the University of Tirana after World War II. He is survived by his wife, Helena Kadare, who is also a writer, and their two daughters.