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Ditë kafenesh
88 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Ismail Kadare
272 books1,737 followersIsmail Kadare (also spelled Kadaré) was an Albanian novelist and poet. He has been a leading literary figure in Albania since the 1960s. He focused on short stories until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army. In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France. In 1992, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca; in 2005, he won the inaugural Man Booker International Prize, in 2009 the Prince of Asturias Award of Arts, and in 2015 the Jerusalem Prize. He has divided his time between Albania and France since 1990. Kadare has been mentioned as a possible recipient for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. His works have been published in about 30 languages.
Ismail Kadare was born in 1936 in Gjirokastër, in the south of Albania. His education included studies at the University of Tirana and then the Gorky Institute for World Literature in Moscow, a training school for writers and critics.
In 1960 Kadare returned to Albania after the country broke ties with the Soviet Union, and he became a journalist and published his first poems.
His first novel, The General of the Dead Army, sprang from a short story, and its success established his name in Albania and enabled Kadare to become a full-time writer.
Kadare's novels draw on Balkan history and legends. They are obliquely ironic as a result of trying to withstand political scrutiny. Among his best known books are Chronicle in Stone (1977), Broken April (1978), and The Concert (1988), considered the best novel of the year 1991 by the French literary magazine Lire.
In 1990, Kadare claimed political asylum in France, issuing statements in favour of democratisation. During the ordeal, he stated that "dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible. The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship."
Ismail Kadare was born in 1936 in Gjirokastër, in the south of Albania. His education included studies at the University of Tirana and then the Gorky Institute for World Literature in Moscow, a training school for writers and critics.
In 1960 Kadare returned to Albania after the country broke ties with the Soviet Union, and he became a journalist and published his first poems.
His first novel, The General of the Dead Army, sprang from a short story, and its success established his name in Albania and enabled Kadare to become a full-time writer.
Kadare's novels draw on Balkan history and legends. They are obliquely ironic as a result of trying to withstand political scrutiny. Among his best known books are Chronicle in Stone (1977), Broken April (1978), and The Concert (1988), considered the best novel of the year 1991 by the French literary magazine Lire.
In 1990, Kadare claimed political asylum in France, issuing statements in favour of democratisation. During the ordeal, he stated that "dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible. The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship."
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 12, 2018
Días de juerga es una novela corta, una nouvelle escrita en 1963, y que en España aparece en el volumen Cuestión de locura, junto a otras tres novelas breves de Kadaré. El texto de Días de juerga pertenecía a un primer borrador de la obra La ciudad sin anuncios –aún sin publicarse en español-, pirueta arriesgada de su autor, hasta el punto de que algunos amigos le recomendaron prudencia a la hora de publicarlo. Al final, Kadaré desgajó un texto breve, titulado Días de café en su idioma original, que hacía gala de un humor dadaísta y arriesgado, disolvente con el realismo socialista y que, en tono de chanza y choteo, critica la concepción estética del régimen. Tamaño ataque no podía pasar desapercibido para la censura, y el texto sería prohibido por decadente y extraño a la realidad socialista.
Lo que hace de Días de juerga un texto demoledor, es su capacidad para poner en entredicho los valores que sustentan el régimen gracias a un humor surrealista. Amparado en él, Kadaré dinamita las bases del Estado arremetiendo contra las instituciones y la autoridad. Los protagonistas, dos jóvenes descerebrados que se embarcan en la búsqueda de un manuscrito de un legendario autor albanés, búsqueda motivada por la abulia y por el aburrimiento y sin creer en ello, dejando pasar las tardes entre cigarrillos y cafés y copas de coñac, son una carga de profundidad contra la Albania del momento, que aparece retratada como un país donde la abulia, la desidia y la alienación conforman el día a día de sus habitantes.
En esta temprana narración ya aparecen algunas de las características de lo que definirá la obra de Kadaré en algunos de sus aspectos: el tiempo climatológico como determinante del tedio y del hastío, como reflejo deslucido del paraíso socialista, así como ciertas reflexiones literarias o metaliterarias, y un trazo seco y directo a la hora de caracterizar a los personajes, con unos golpes de humor desazonadores e inquietantes. La conciencia de los personajes que piensan que se asemejan a protagonistas de novelas modernas, de esos que siempre fuman en brazos del hastío, los acerca a una realidad ajena al régimen y a los preceptos del socialismo realista en las cuestiones literarias. El texto de Kadaré se vuelve, así, una reflexión ácida, destructiva, de un dadaísmo punk peligroso.
No se puede negar que la obra novelesca de Kadaré está teñida de ciertos pasajes y momentos oscuros y truculentos, duros, terrosos y agrietados, muchas veces empapada de sangre. Por ello, todavía sorprenden más estos Días de café, anclados en un sólido humor descarnado que se asemeja al rictus de una calavera. Kadaré ataca a las instituciones, a los comportamientos, a la tradición, a la historia, a todo aquello en lo que se sustenta el régimen, simplemente con el retrato del comportamiento de sus protagonistas, los jóvenes que se aburren y fuman, y se aburren y beben, y se aburren y se tumban en la cama a dejar pasar el tiempo, y se aburren y se creen como personajes modernos de esas novelas ajenas al realismo socialista que pintará héroes estajanovistas y protagonistas entregados al Partido.
Un texto breve, pero de enorme carga y crítica, que se cimenta en un humor extraño que consigue, primero sorprendernos, después, hacernos soltar la carcajada, lo que, tratándose de Kadaré, no deja de ser algo notable.
Lo que hace de Días de juerga un texto demoledor, es su capacidad para poner en entredicho los valores que sustentan el régimen gracias a un humor surrealista. Amparado en él, Kadaré dinamita las bases del Estado arremetiendo contra las instituciones y la autoridad. Los protagonistas, dos jóvenes descerebrados que se embarcan en la búsqueda de un manuscrito de un legendario autor albanés, búsqueda motivada por la abulia y por el aburrimiento y sin creer en ello, dejando pasar las tardes entre cigarrillos y cafés y copas de coñac, son una carga de profundidad contra la Albania del momento, que aparece retratada como un país donde la abulia, la desidia y la alienación conforman el día a día de sus habitantes.
En esta temprana narración ya aparecen algunas de las características de lo que definirá la obra de Kadaré en algunos de sus aspectos: el tiempo climatológico como determinante del tedio y del hastío, como reflejo deslucido del paraíso socialista, así como ciertas reflexiones literarias o metaliterarias, y un trazo seco y directo a la hora de caracterizar a los personajes, con unos golpes de humor desazonadores e inquietantes. La conciencia de los personajes que piensan que se asemejan a protagonistas de novelas modernas, de esos que siempre fuman en brazos del hastío, los acerca a una realidad ajena al régimen y a los preceptos del socialismo realista en las cuestiones literarias. El texto de Kadaré se vuelve, así, una reflexión ácida, destructiva, de un dadaísmo punk peligroso.
No se puede negar que la obra novelesca de Kadaré está teñida de ciertos pasajes y momentos oscuros y truculentos, duros, terrosos y agrietados, muchas veces empapada de sangre. Por ello, todavía sorprenden más estos Días de café, anclados en un sólido humor descarnado que se asemeja al rictus de una calavera. Kadaré ataca a las instituciones, a los comportamientos, a la tradición, a la historia, a todo aquello en lo que se sustenta el régimen, simplemente con el retrato del comportamiento de sus protagonistas, los jóvenes que se aburren y fuman, y se aburren y beben, y se aburren y se tumban en la cama a dejar pasar el tiempo, y se aburren y se creen como personajes modernos de esas novelas ajenas al realismo socialista que pintará héroes estajanovistas y protagonistas entregados al Partido.
Un texto breve, pero de enorme carga y crítica, que se cimenta en un humor extraño que consigue, primero sorprendernos, después, hacernos soltar la carcajada, lo que, tratándose de Kadaré, no deja de ser algo notable.
September 14, 2020
Per te kuptuar me mire kete veper, duhet lexuar mema e saj ‘Qyteti pa reklama’, pasi sic shprehet vete autori, ‘Dite kafenesh’ eshte pjelle e saj. Edhe pse kjo novele qendron si veper me vete, te jep ndjesine dhe mesazhin e njohur te ‘Qyteti pa reklama’.
Ajo qe me impresionoi me shume eshte aftesia parashikuese e Kadarese per jetesen moderne ne kafene, e cila perkon shume me realitetin e sotem. Vetem se bisedat ne kafenete e sotme, rralle arrijne te formojne ide, qofte edhe ide te tilla si ajo e dy shokeve ne kete veper.
Ajo qe me impresionoi me shume eshte aftesia parashikuese e Kadarese per jetesen moderne ne kafene, e cila perkon shume me realitetin e sotem. Vetem se bisedat ne kafenete e sotme, rralle arrijne te formojne ide, qofte edhe ide te tilla si ajo e dy shokeve ne kete veper.
August 16, 2025
Originally published in 1962 as a short story in Zëri i Rinisë, Ditë Kafenesh is an excerpt from Kadare’s then-unreleased novel Qyteti pa reklama. Shortly after publication, it was banned and criticized for its so-called “decadent” themes.
Due to the backlash and advice from colleagues, Kadare withheld the full novel until 1990. While Ditë Kafenesh stands alone as a novella, reading it alongside Qyteti pa reklama offers deeper insight—something I still plan to do.
Due to the backlash and advice from colleagues, Kadare withheld the full novel until 1990. While Ditë Kafenesh stands alone as a novella, reading it alongside Qyteti pa reklama offers deeper insight—something I still plan to do.
April 11, 2025
This is one of Ismail Kadare’s earliest works. When he studied in Moscow in the late 1950s, he wrote his first novel, Qyteti pa reklama. However, once he returned from the USSR, then enjoying the Krushchev thaw, to Enver Hoxha’s Albania that remained insistently Stalinist, he found that it would be quite impossible to publish that novel that showed no interest in the dictates of Socialist Realism. Ditë kafenesh is a short story that was a result of rearranging and rewriting parts of Qyteti pa reklama in the hopes (soon dashed) that at least some of the material could eventually be published.
While this comedic short story is quite slender (an introduction by R. Baird Shuman and Kadare’s own preface were included to pad it out to book length), it was an enjoyable read and it shows that Kadare already had considerable talent by his early twenties. This tale concerns the nameless narrator and his nameless friend, literature students in Tirana, who set off for the southern Albanian city of N., in the hope of finding a lost manuscript of the great Albanian writer Andon Zako Çajupi. With regard to the title Cafe Days, one must remember that in Albania cafes are for the drinking of both coffee and spirits, and these two young men are sots whose hare-brained schemes are hatched under the influence of alcohol. They stumble into a few Withnail and I-like misadventures, and meet with some funny locals like a superstitious warden of a cemetery and two ridiculous regime-associated poets, though as these are only the fragments of a larger novel, this is all related in a very elliptical fashion.
While this comedic short story is quite slender (an introduction by R. Baird Shuman and Kadare’s own preface were included to pad it out to book length), it was an enjoyable read and it shows that Kadare already had considerable talent by his early twenties. This tale concerns the nameless narrator and his nameless friend, literature students in Tirana, who set off for the southern Albanian city of N., in the hope of finding a lost manuscript of the great Albanian writer Andon Zako Çajupi. With regard to the title Cafe Days, one must remember that in Albania cafes are for the drinking of both coffee and spirits, and these two young men are sots whose hare-brained schemes are hatched under the influence of alcohol. They stumble into a few Withnail and I-like misadventures, and meet with some funny locals like a superstitious warden of a cemetery and two ridiculous regime-associated poets, though as these are only the fragments of a larger novel, this is all related in a very elliptical fashion.
August 26, 2025
Kjo ishte një novelë e shkurtër dhe e këndshme për tu lexuar dhe që padyshim shquhet për atë stilin e veçantë të Kadaresë edhe pse është i shkruar në vitet rinore të krijimtarisë së tij letrare.
E shkëputur nga vepra përmbledhëse e disa novelave (noveletave) Qyteti pa reklama, ishte një histori fiktive por shumë e besueshme ku personazhë kryesorë ishin vet autori dhe një shok i tij, të cilët vendosin të kërkojnë dorëshkrime të vjetra letrare, shkencore apo edhe fetare. Në shkrim vërehet perspektiva personale, pra shkruhet në këndvështrimin e vet protagonistit, këndvështrim i cili nuk kërkon përshkrim të zgjatur apo shpjegim qartësues nga narratori siç hasim në romane tjera që nganjëherë mund të jetë goxha 'freskuese'. Vërehet një mendim i përgjithshëm hipokritik i protagonistit dhe shokut të tij, 'tru-shpërlarje' ndoshta, por shumë mirë lë të kuptojë se si ishte rinia atëherë, si punohej e si mendohej.
Vepër e thjeshtë, shumë e bukur në aspektin letrar, pak e mangët në aspektin kuptimor-tematik.
E shkëputur nga vepra përmbledhëse e disa novelave (noveletave) Qyteti pa reklama, ishte një histori fiktive por shumë e besueshme ku personazhë kryesorë ishin vet autori dhe një shok i tij, të cilët vendosin të kërkojnë dorëshkrime të vjetra letrare, shkencore apo edhe fetare. Në shkrim vërehet perspektiva personale, pra shkruhet në këndvështrimin e vet protagonistit, këndvështrim i cili nuk kërkon përshkrim të zgjatur apo shpjegim qartësues nga narratori siç hasim në romane tjera që nganjëherë mund të jetë goxha 'freskuese'. Vërehet një mendim i përgjithshëm hipokritik i protagonistit dhe shokut të tij, 'tru-shpërlarje' ndoshta, por shumë mirë lë të kuptojë se si ishte rinia atëherë, si punohej e si mendohej.
Vepër e thjeshtë, shumë e bukur në aspektin letrar, pak e mangët në aspektin kuptimor-tematik.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews