Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Post any books set in Albania here.

Books set in Albania:


The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare
Broken April by Ismail Kadare
Chronicle in Stone: A Novel by Ismail Kadare
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by Ismail Kadare
The General of the Dead Army by Ismail Kadare
The Three-Arched Bridge by Ismail Kadare
The File on H.: A Novel by Ismail Kadare
The Siege by Ismail Kadare
The Successor by Ismail Kadare
Doruntine by Ismail Kadare
Agamemnon's Daughter: A Novella and Stories by Ismail Kadare
The Country Where No One Ever Dies by Ornela Vorpsi
The Concert by Ismail Kadare
Biografi by Lloyd Jones
High Albania: A Victorian Traveller's Balkan Odyssey by M. Edith Durham
Long Life to Your Children!: A Portrait of High Albania by Marjorie Senechal
Albanian Escape by Agnes Jensen Mangerich
The Albanian Affairs by Susana Fortes
The Highland Lute by Gjergj Fishta
The Loser by Fatos Kongoli
The Accursed Mountains by Robert Carver
Tirana blues by Fatos Kongoli
The Albanians: A Modern History by Miranda Vickers
The Ghost Rider by Ismail Kadare
The Lion's Daughter by Loretta Chase
Land of Eagles: Riding through Europe's Forgotten Country by Robin Hanbury-Tenison
Second Sentence: Inside the Albanian Gulag by Fatos Lubonja
Albanian Identities: Myth and History by Bernd Jurgen Fischer
Albanian Folktales and Legends by Robert Elsie
Albanian Escape by Agnes Jensen Mangerich
The Albanian Affairs by Susana Fortes
An Albanian Journal by Edmund Keeley
Albanian Spring: The Anatomy of Tyranny by Ismail Kadare
Women Who Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins by Antonia Young
Balkan Beauty, Balkan Blood: Modern Albanian Short Stories by Robert Elsie
Live to Tell: A True Story of Religious Persecution in Communist Albania by Fr. Zef Pllumi
An Englishman in Albania: Memoirs of a British Officer 1929-1955 by D. R. Oakley-Hill
The Gift of Walnuts: Boot Camping in Albania by Linda Ann Smith
Go Forth: Stories of Missions and Resurrection in Albania by Luke A. Veronis
Christ and the Kalashnikov: Stories of Hope in War-Torn Albania by Ian Loring
Folk Tales from Albania by Raja Sharma
Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land by John Crowley
The Keys of Hell by Jack Higgins
Seducing the Accomplice by Jennifer Morey
God's Secret Listener: The Story of Captain Berti Dosti by John Butterworth
Where Is My Brother?: A True Story by Adelina Gina

I have edited and added to a Listopia list of books set in Albania here: Albanian Books. I compiled the list from this thread plus other suggestions and recommendations found elsewhere on Good Reads and the Internet. Feel free to vote for your favorites and/or add books that I missed!

Edward Lear in Albania: Journals of a Landscape Painter in the Balkans by Edward Lear

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

The Fall of the Stone City by Ismail Kadaré

A Short Border Handbook by Gazmend Kapllani (Also set in Greece)

More books set in Albania:



The Accident by Ismail Kadaré
Dimiter by William Peter Blatty
Every Inch a King by Harry Turtledove
Flying to the Land of Freedom by Altin Dervishi
If i were a boy by Haki Stërmilli
Pran Of Albania by Elizabeth Cleveland Miller

The Silencer is set in Albania.

Paul wrote: "The Silencer is set in Albania.
"

As the author of 'The Silencer', recently in the UK, I was able to share my local perspective on the Greek Debt Crisis, Albania and migration… Click the link for a 10 minute interview on Trans World Radio...

https://www.mixcloud.com/Muthena/gree...

Ornela Vorpsi: Nothing Obvious by Ornela Vorpsi

Why?! by Sterjo Spasse

More books set in Albania:


After Leaving The Village by Helen Matthews
Albania And The Albanians by M. Edith Durham
Albania's Mountain Queen: Edith Durham and the Balkans by Marcus Tanner
Albanian Question by James Pettifer
Albanian Tattoo: Poems by Sami Milloshi
Anthology of Modern Albanian Poetry: An Elusive Eagle Soars by Robert Elsie
Artful Albanian: Memoirs of Enver Hoxha by Enver Hoxha
The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic by Anna Di Lellio
Child of Nature by Luljeta Lleshanaku
The Condemned Apple: Selected Poetry by Visar Zhiti
Dreaming Escape by Valentina Saracini
The English Witch by Loretta Chase (2nd book of Trevelyan Family series)
Free Verse by Millosh Gjergj Nikolla (Migjeni)
Fresco: Selected Poetry by Luljeta Lleshanaku
The Glorious Flight of Perdita Tree by Olivia Fane
From Albania, With Love by Migena Dulaj
From Stalin to Mao: Albania and the Socialist World by Elidor Mëhilli
Hasta La Vista by Petro Marko
Haywire: New & Selected Poems by Luljeta Lleshanaku
Hold Still by Tim Adler
In Byron's Footsteps by Tessa de Loo
Land of Eagles: Riding through Europe's Forgotten Country
The Lemon Grove by Andie Hughes
Lightning from the Depths: An Anthology of Albanian Poetry by Robert Elsie
Meriyll by Viktor Canosinaj
Negative Space by Luljeta Lleshanaku
Only Bees Die: Peace Corps Eastern Europe by Robert Keller

More books set in Albania:


The Pyramid by Ismail Kadare
Scanderbeg: From Ottoman Captive to Albanian Hero by Harry Hodgkinson
The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines
The Siege of Shkodra: Albania's Courageous Stand Against Ottoman Conquest, 1478
Sleeping Dogs by Thomas Mogford (Spike Sanguinetti #4)
Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones
The Sworn Virgin by Kristopher Dukes
The Traitor's Niche by Ismail Kadare
Transform!: Based on an Albanian Fairy Tale by Iva Cipuri
Twilight of the Eastern Gods by Ismail Kadare

A Girl in Exile by Ismail Kadare

Crossing by Pajtim Statovci

‘I have spent some time in Greece in the past, and I was captivated by the author's evocation of various locations in Athens. His description of the car journey from Albania to Greece, too, is rich and detailed…’ says reviewer S C Skillman.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...


New novel coming September 2024 from Ledia Xhoga:

In present-day New York City, an Albanian interpreter reluctantly agrees to work with Alfred, a Kosovar torture survivor, during his therapy sessions. Despite her husband’s cautions, she soon becomes entangled in her clients’ struggles: Alfred's nightmares stir up her own buried memories, and an impulsive attempt to help a Kurdish poet leads to a risky encounter and a reckless plan. 
As ill-fated decisions stack up, jeopardizing the nameless narrator’s marriage and mental health, she takes a spontaneous trip to reunite with her mother in Albania, where her life in the United States is put into stark relief. When she returns to face the consequences of her actions, she must question what is real and what is not. Ruminative and propulsive, Ledia Xhoga’s debut novel Misinterpretation interrogates the darker legacies of family and country, and the boundary between compassion and self-preservation.





If in the twenty-first-century Kafka had moved from Prague to Brooklyn, Misinterpretation is the novel I believe he would have written. Instead, Ledia Xhoga wrote it- Tom Grimes author of Mentor wrote.

My review of Lea Ypi's memoir 'Free'. I really enjoyed it.

‘When freedom finally arrived, it was like a dish served frozen,’ says Lea Ypi of life in post-communist Albania as she meditates in ‘Free’ on the idea’s true meaning. ‘We chewed a little, swallowed fast and remained hungry.’

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This is a good, relatively non-fiction book about the adventures of a British SOE agent in Albania during WWII. It provides insight into how Albania ended up in the eastern bloc.

Mike wrote: "

This is a good, relatively non-fiction book about the adventures of a British SOE agent in Albania during WWII..."

It's a great read Mike. One of my favourites about Albania.

The Doll

Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania by Małgorzata Rejmer.

Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi.

A Cursed Life