De Feestcommissie en alle andere verhalen van weleer

by Ismail Kadare

In un'Albania ancora assoggettata al dominio ottomano si svolgono i minuziosi preparativi per una festa di riconciliazione. Il meticoloso dispositivo cerimoniale accresce, di ora in ora, l'attesa per l'arrivo degli invitati. Rituali dell'ospitalità, banchetti, danze e giochi costituiscono, però, solo la messa in scena di una tragica beffa...

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Ismail 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."

Reviews

[Teipus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Verhalen van weleer ***
De grote muur ****
Als de nacht valt… ****
De feestcommissie ****
Het verblindingsdecreet *****
De diefstal van de koninklijke droom ***
Het geslacht Hankoni ***
De opheffing van het vervloekersambt ****
Afscheid van het kwaad *****

[Maarten Vidal · Rating 4 out of 5]

De verhalen uit deze verhalenbundel leggen heel wat bruggetjes naar de romans van Kadare, waarin de geschiedenis van Albanië, de twijfel over het Europese of oriëntaalse karakter van het land en de unieke mindset van de mensen centraal staan. Als je in gedachten houdt dat hij deze boeken schreef tegen de achtergrond van de erg gesloten dictatuur van Hoxha, dan krijgen terugkerende elementen als "het dromenpaleis" waar de dromen van alle inwoners van het Ottomaanse Rijk bijgehouden en geanalyseerd worden, een heel andere betekenis. Vijftien jaar geleden las ik een aantal andere boeken van hem, en dit boek doet me zin krijgen om ze opnieuw ter hand te nemen.