The Man Booker International Prize 2005
Albanian author Ismail Kadare was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2005, the very first year of the prize.
Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare, born in 1936 in Albania, is the country’s best-known poet and novelist.
Since the appearance of The General of the Dead Army in 1965, Kadare has published scores of stories and novels that make up a panorama of Albanian history linked by a constant meditation on the nature and human consequences of dictatorship. His works, particularly The Monster and The Palace of Dreams, brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities, and in 1990 he sought political asylum in France.
The winner of the first ever Man Booker International Prize in 2005, awarded for his full body of work, he now divides his time between Paris and Tirana.
- Born
All nominated books
Ismail Kadare conjures up a surreal tale of tyranny and rebellion, in a Kafkaesque land where languages are banned and memories extinguished. Translated by John Hodgson.
