Kadare shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

TIRANA, March 7 – Albania’s internationally renowned writer Ismail Kadare has been shortlisted by UK’s The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Longlist for his recent The Fall of the Stone City novel. Thirteen different languages and sixteen very different novels. Each work tackles different themes. From the political, to the personal and the historical. From Norwegian to Arabic, to Afrikaans, and back around to Dutch and Spanish; the list encompasses well-known names, like those of Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk, to the Nobel Prize Perennial nominee Ismail Kadare; to a confessional prose writer Karl Ove Knausgaard; also an IMPACT Dublin Award winner and gardener by trade Gerrband Bakker also makes the list.
The Fall of the Stone City opens as World War II is coming to a close. The Italians have surrendered and the Germans are in retreat. It seems certain they’ll shortly overrun Albania
The Fall of the Stone City displays Ismail Kadare at the height of his considerable powers.
The Independent Foreign Prize honours the best work of fiction by a living author, which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom.
First awarded in 1990 to Orhan Pamuk and translator Victoria Holbrook for The White Castle, the Prize ran until 1995 and was then revived in 2000 with the support of Arts Council England, who continue to fund the award. The 2012 prize was won by Aharon Appelfeld and translator Jeffrey M Green for Blooms of Darkness.
A shortlist of six books will be announced on Thursday 11 April and the overall winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013 will be announced at an awards ceremony in central London in May at the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Last September, Ismail Kadare was announced the winner of Spain’s La Risa De Bilbao, a cultural festival aimed at highlighting the importance of humour in the arts – especially in literature and graphic arts. Kadare is given the Euro 20,000 award because his sense of black humour and Kafkian irony.
For Kadare who has also been placed as a favourite to win the Nobel Prize for Literature this is the second award received in Spain after the prestigious Prince of Asturias literary Prize for being “a universal voice against totalitarianism” back in 2009.
An internationally renowned poet, novelist, essayist, Ismail Kadare has been perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature.
Kadare’s international acclaim for his works peaked in 2005 when he won the Man Booker International Prize. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages.