The Siege
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4.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An epic novel of war from the Man Booker International Prize–winning Albanian author who “has been compared to Gogol, Kafka, and Orwell” (The Independent).
Ismail Kadare’s The Siege dramatizes a fictional fifth century assault by the Ottoman Army on a Christian fortress in the Albanian mountains.
As the bloody and psychologically crushing struggle for control unfolds, Kadare’s narrative opens a window onto the eternal clash between religions and empires. His masterful prose brings to life the exhilaration, despair, and immediacy of the battlefield—as well as a dramatic view of those who command and those who fight and die.
Hailed by The New Yorker as “Albania’s most distinguished novelist,” Kadare is a hero to his countrymen, as well as an outspoken critic of all forms of totalitarianism. Here, with this epic novel, he proves himself “an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil” (The Independent).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in Albania in 1970 and translated into French in the '90s, Kadare's (The Successor) beast of a novel traces a 15th-century Ottoman siege of a Christian citadel in Albania. Ugurlu Tursun Pasha is commander-in-chief of a vast number of Turkish infantry troops, cavalry, swordsmen and janissaries. From his pink pavilion on the plain, the pasha must vanquish the Albanians, who refuse to surrender. Readers meet several on the pasha's side during the bloody battles, including the rather hapless Mevla elebi, chronicler to the Ottomans, and the enlightened quartermaster general. Although there are few Albanian characters, Kadare, a Man Booker International Prize winner and Nobel contender, crafts a story whose details add up to a glimpse into the soul of his own country. Kadare's metaphors leave no doubt that the novel is also an insightful commentary on life in late 1960s Albania, when the book was written.
