Description
Book SynopsisTwo Irish-American scholars from Harvard journey to Albania in the 1930s with a tape recorder (a ''new fangled'' invention) in order to record the last genuinely oral epic singers.
Their purpose, they say, is to show how Homer''s epics might have been culled from a verbal tradition. But the local Governor believes its an elaborate spying mission and arranges for his own spy to follow them.The two dedicated scholars realise only too late that they have stumbled over an ants'' nest.
This simple tale by Albania''s most eminent and gifted novelist serves to lift the veil on one of the most secret and mysterious countries of modern Europe.
Witty and touching. It consolidates Kadare''s reputation as one of the finest writers to emerge from communist Europe' Sunday Times
Trade ReviewWitty and touching. It consolidates Kadare's reputation as one of the finest writers to emerge from communist Europe * Sunday Times *
Eloquent, engaging and poignant * Irish Times *
A wicked and amusing satire of provincial life...it is also an elegiac celebration of the power of poetry * Times Literary Supplement *
Funny, strange, and melancholy * Guardian *
Knife-sharp satire...originality shines through * The Times *
