What do you think?
Rate this book
La terra sbagliata
Karl, protagonista del romanzo e alter ego dell’autore, ci racconta in un peculiare gioco temporale del suo ritorno alla terra albanese e del suo esilio volontario e doloroso. Ters, immaginaria città albanese e città natale del protagonista, viene creata come teatro perfetto per la messa in scena dei temi cari all’autore e fondamentali per il mondo contemporaneo: identità, appartenenza, libertà, displacement. Con la delicatezza e l’ironia che lo contraddistinguono e un coinvolgente intreccio di storia e finzione, l’autore racconta di uno spaccato d’Europa ancora “lontano”, una storia che si fa universale e che sembra porre il lettore davanti a domande che sfidano ad andare più a fondo: dove e come prendono forma le radici dell’uomo?
Dopo lo straordinario successo in Grecia, Albania, Italia e Stati Uniti di μικρό ημερολόγιο συνόρων (Breve diario di frontiera, Del Vecchio Editore, 2015), Kapllani torna con questo romanzo in cui il gioco letterario e l’alternanza del tono saggistico e della narrazione poetica rendono il senso e la necessità del racconto per la memoria collettiva.
Dopo lo straordinario successo in Grecia, Albania, Italia e Stati Uniti di μικρό ημερολόγιο συνόρων (Breve diario di frontiera, Del Vecchio Editore, 2015), Kapllani torna con questo romanzo in cui il gioco letterario e l’alternanza del tono saggistico e della narrazione poetica rendono il senso e la necessità del racconto per la memoria collettiva.
184 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2018
About the author
Gazmend Kapllani
5 books24 followersGAZMEND KAPLLANI was born in 1967 in Lushnjë, Albania. In January 1991 he crossed the border into Greece on foot to escape persecution by the communist secret services. In Greece he worked as a builder, a cook and a kiosk attendant, while also studying at Athens University and completing a doctorate on the image of Albanians in the Greek press and of Greeks in the Albanian press. He is now a successful writer, playwright, broadcaster and journalist with a twice-weekly column in Ta Nea, Greece's biggest daily newspaper.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 9, 2025
Qualche settimana fa a Book Pride allo stand di Del Vecchio vedo il libro di un autore greco che avevo letto qualche anno fa. Chiedo se hanno qualcos’altro di suo o di qualche altro greco.
Non è facile trovare narrativa greca in Italia; per fortuna ultimamente Crocetti sta recuperando, però in generale, a parte Markaris, non viene pubblicato quasi nulla. E poi diciamocelo: ormai Markaris non ha più niente da dire, i suoi gialli più recenti sembrano lo stradario di Atene.
Ovviamente da Del Vecchio non hanno altri greci, ma mi viene proposto questo albanese, che in Grecia è emigrato negli anni ’90 e poi ci è rimasto. Questa fondamentalmente è la sua storia ed è pure la storia recente dell’Albania, ma si parla anche di identità, lingue, amore, lutto, sogni, radici, fuga, patria, famiglia.
E’ un libro breve ma densissimo e talmente bello che, facendo violenza su me stesso, non ho voluto terminare subito; ho preferito leggerlo lentamente, anche lasciandolo fermo un paio di giorni per poi riprenderlo e gustarlo con calma e a fondo.
Non è facile trovare narrativa greca in Italia; per fortuna ultimamente Crocetti sta recuperando, però in generale, a parte Markaris, non viene pubblicato quasi nulla. E poi diciamocelo: ormai Markaris non ha più niente da dire, i suoi gialli più recenti sembrano lo stradario di Atene.
Ovviamente da Del Vecchio non hanno altri greci, ma mi viene proposto questo albanese, che in Grecia è emigrato negli anni ’90 e poi ci è rimasto. Questa fondamentalmente è la sua storia ed è pure la storia recente dell’Albania, ma si parla anche di identità, lingue, amore, lutto, sogni, radici, fuga, patria, famiglia.
E’ un libro breve ma densissimo e talmente bello che, facendo violenza su me stesso, non ho voluto terminare subito; ho preferito leggerlo lentamente, anche lasciandolo fermo un paio di giorni per poi riprenderlo e gustarlo con calma e a fondo.
March 26, 2025
“Non sei stanco, Karl, di passare tutta la vita a parlare le lingue degli altri?”
Una bella riflessione su migrazione, patria e famiglia, ma anche sulla morte, la sepoltura e su come le radici (o la loro negazione) plasmino la nostra identità.
Una bella riflessione su migrazione, patria e famiglia, ma anche sulla morte, la sepoltura e su come le radici (o la loro negazione) plasmino la nostra identità.
November 7, 2018
nje reflektim brilant, ironik, sarkastik, i fateve te shqiptareve pas viteve 90; bota e emigrantit dhe perplasja me realitetin ne atdhe; paradokse dhe realitete dramatike. e rekomandoj fort per lexim nese duam te behemi neser me te mire, apo edhe nese duam te kemi neser nje shqiperi me te mire
May 17, 2020
"...; sepse në këto anë njerëzit vazhdonin ta shihnin ikjen si shpëtim, vazhdonin t'i besonin më shumë mirësisë së të huajve sesa drejtësisë së atdheut të tyre;"
August 31, 2024
Χαμένη η Ελλάδα με την φυγή του Γκαζμεντ Καπλάνι
July 22, 2025
identità, patria, famiglia, radici e molto altro in questo libro breve ma intenso e denso, scritto benissimo.
April 19, 2025
From Kirkus Reviews (Awards & Accolades: “Get It”)
The death of his father brings an expat back to his fraught hometown in Kapllani’s novel.
It’s been 27 years since Karl left his native city of Ters, Albania, for a better life in Greece and, ultimately, America. The death of his father has brought him back home, however, and he finds a city just as riddled with contradictions as it was when he left. Ters is a city in which Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Soviet pasts mingle, a city “in which everything—religions, people’s names, streets, animals, inanimate objects—existed in double or triple versions.” There he finds his brother, Frederik, the son who remained in Albania to uphold the communist ideals of their father—a man so committed to the revolution that he named his sons after Marx and Engels. Karl has long resented his father’s dedication to what he sees as a failed ideology and is surprised to learn that the old man had become an observant Muslim before he died. Karl’s trip home reopens memories stretching back to his mother’s mysterious suicide decades before. As he and Frederik butt heads over matters personal and political, a portrait emerges not only of a fractured family, but also of a fractured city and of an exile who has lived most of his life (in the words of his father) “speaking other people’s languages.” Kapllani’s prose, as translated by Bien, is not always smooth, but the images and ideas are almost always striking. “A writer’s mind often resembles a cemetery,” observes the narrator. “Most of the stories and characters fashioned by such a mind usually return like midnight shadows to the mysterious darkness of their source.” The narrative leaps around in time, covering Karl’s years in Greece and America before returning to Ters and the aftermath of his father’s death. Through Karl’s experiences, Kapllani excavates the complex and often paradoxical relationship a person has with the homeland from which they have been separated, whether through immigration, war, regime change, or the simple passage of time.
A thoughtful and surprising novel about Albania and exile.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
WRONGLAND by Gazmend Kapllani is a 2025 finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award - The Montaigne Medal.
"Each year, the Eric Hoffer Award presents the Montaigne Medal to the most thought-provoking books. These are books that either illuminate, progress, or redirect thought. The Montaigne Medal is given in honor of the great French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, who influenced people such as William Shakespeare, René Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Eric Hoffer. This is an additional distinction beneath the Eric Hoffer Award umbrella".
The death of his father brings an expat back to his fraught hometown in Kapllani’s novel.
It’s been 27 years since Karl left his native city of Ters, Albania, for a better life in Greece and, ultimately, America. The death of his father has brought him back home, however, and he finds a city just as riddled with contradictions as it was when he left. Ters is a city in which Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Soviet pasts mingle, a city “in which everything—religions, people’s names, streets, animals, inanimate objects—existed in double or triple versions.” There he finds his brother, Frederik, the son who remained in Albania to uphold the communist ideals of their father—a man so committed to the revolution that he named his sons after Marx and Engels. Karl has long resented his father’s dedication to what he sees as a failed ideology and is surprised to learn that the old man had become an observant Muslim before he died. Karl’s trip home reopens memories stretching back to his mother’s mysterious suicide decades before. As he and Frederik butt heads over matters personal and political, a portrait emerges not only of a fractured family, but also of a fractured city and of an exile who has lived most of his life (in the words of his father) “speaking other people’s languages.” Kapllani’s prose, as translated by Bien, is not always smooth, but the images and ideas are almost always striking. “A writer’s mind often resembles a cemetery,” observes the narrator. “Most of the stories and characters fashioned by such a mind usually return like midnight shadows to the mysterious darkness of their source.” The narrative leaps around in time, covering Karl’s years in Greece and America before returning to Ters and the aftermath of his father’s death. Through Karl’s experiences, Kapllani excavates the complex and often paradoxical relationship a person has with the homeland from which they have been separated, whether through immigration, war, regime change, or the simple passage of time.
A thoughtful and surprising novel about Albania and exile.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
WRONGLAND by Gazmend Kapllani is a 2025 finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award - The Montaigne Medal.
"Each year, the Eric Hoffer Award presents the Montaigne Medal to the most thought-provoking books. These are books that either illuminate, progress, or redirect thought. The Montaigne Medal is given in honor of the great French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, who influenced people such as William Shakespeare, René Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Eric Hoffer. This is an additional distinction beneath the Eric Hoffer Award umbrella".
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews