A Dictator Calls

Ismail Kadare, John Hodgson

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Vintage
12 November 2024

Literary studies: poetry & poets; Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Historical fiction; Fiction in translation

The new novel from the first winner of International Man Booker, inspired by three minutes in June 1934 when Joseph Stalin allegedly called Boris Pasternak. A fascinating meditation on Soviet Russia, authoritarianism, power structures and a period of great writers.
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*LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024
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'Comrade Stalin wishes to speak with you.'

A fascinating exploration of the relationship between writers and tyranny, from the winner of the first Man Booker International Prize.

In June 1934, Joseph Stalin allegedly telephoned the famous novelist and poet Boris Pasternak to discuss the arrest of fellow Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam. In a fascinating combination of dreams and dossier facts, Ismail Kadare reconstructs the three minutes they spoke and the aftershocks of this tense, mysterious moment in modern history.

Weaving together the accounts of witnesses, reporters and writers such as Isaiah Berlin and Anna Akhmatova, Kadare tells a gripping story of power and political structures, of the relationship between writers and tyranny. The telling brings to light uncanny parallels with Kadare's experience writing under dictatorship, when he received an unexpected phone call of his own.

Translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson

'One of Europe's most decorated authors... Seasoned fans

of Kadare

will be enthralled' Sunday Times

By: Ismail Kadare
Translated by: John Hodgson
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 162g
ISBN: 9781529920574
ISBN 10: 1529920574
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 12 November 2024
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Ismail Kadare (1936-2024) is Albania's best-known novelist and poet. Translations of his novels have appeared in more than forty countries. He was awarded the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005, the Jerusalem Prize in 2015, the Park Kyong-ni Prize in 2019 and the Neustadt Prize in 2020.

Reviews for A Dictator Calls

One of Europe's most decorated authors... Seasoned fans [of Kadare] will be enthralled by this very personal meditation on the circumstances in which, against the odds, he [Pasternak] still managed to thrive * Sunday Times * An inquiry concerning power, artistic integrity, fame, memory and more… A Dictator Calls is slim, but its themes are not… the riddles of this novel are still ringing in my mind * Sunday Telegraph * Albania’s greatest living writer… A Dictator Calls is a thought-provoking consideration of the relationship between writers and tyranny, with John Hodgson’s translation gracefully rendering Kadare’s imagination. * Financial Times *