A Girl in Exile
Requiem for Linda B.
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
“Erotic, paranoiac and lightly fantastical.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Ismail Kadare's readers are astonished every year when the Nobel committee overlooks him. . . . A Girl in Exile, published in Albanian in 2009, may rekindle the worldwide hopes.” —The New York Times Book Review
During the bureaucratic machinery of Albania’s 1945–1991 dictatorship, playwright Rudian Stefa is called in for questioning by the Party Committee. A girl—Linda B.—has been found dead, with a signed copy of his latest book in her possession.
He soon learns that Linda’s family, considered suspect, was exiled to a small town far from the capital. Under the influence of a paranoid regime, Rudian finds himself swept along on a surreal quest to discover what really happened to Linda B.
“At a time when parts of the world are indulging nostalgia for communism, Kadare’s novel confronts the infuriating impossibility of art in an autocratic, anti–individualist system.” —The Washington Post
“A Girl in Exile confirms Kadare to be the best writer at work today who remembers—almost aggressively so, refusing to forget—European totalitarianism.” —The New Republic
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A middle-aged writer's oblique connection to a young suicide is the avenue by which Kadare (The General of the Dead Army) provocatively explores the intrusive Albanian state apparatus of the 1980s. When the Party Committee summons writer Rudian Stefa, he worries artistic censors complained to the regime about his latest play. If not the play, perhaps he should worry about shoving his girlfriend Migena, or accusing her of being a spy. The regime's invasiveness becomes increasingly clear as the tragedy of the dead girl who grew up in exile unfolds and connects her to Rudian; Migena asked him at a signing to autograph a book "for Linda B." The authorities have Linda's copy of the book and her diary, which reveals an obsession with Rudian and provides clues to a desperate plan that involves Migena. Comparisons to Kafka are inevitable, but there's also some Joseph Heller here. Kadare successfully renders Big Brother, and, though Linda's hopeless scheme strains credulity, this is nonetheless a poignant narrative about exile.
