Albania

Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare

Masterful in its simplicity, Chronicle in Stone is a touching coming-of-age story and a testament to the perseverance of the human spirit. Surrounded by the magic of beautiful women and literature, a boy must endure the deprivations of war as he suffers the hardships of growing up. His sleepy country has just thrown off centuries of tyranny, but new waves of domination inundate his city. Through the boy's eyes, we see the terrors of World War II as he witnesses fascist invasions, allied bombings, partisan infighting, and the many faces of human cruelty as well as the simple pleasures of life. 

Evacuating to the countryside, he expects to find an ideal world full of extraordinary things but discovers instead an archaic backwater where a severed arm becomes a talisman and deflowered girls mysteriously vanish. Woven between the chapters of the boy's story are tantalizing fragments of the city's history. As the devastation mounts, the fragments lose coherence, and we perceive firsthand how the violence of war destroys more than just buildings and bridges.

My Thoughts:

I had heard of Albania, but before this book I wouldn't have known where to locate it, or even what continent it is on for that matter.  One of the reasons why this project of reading a book from every country has been so fun is that I am learning geography like I never have before.

Albania was another country that was hard to find a book from.  I'm realizing that a lot of countries are this way.  It is crazy to think that some countries don't have an abundance of literature available to them in their own languages.  Having an extreme wealth of books available to me in my native language is something I have grossly taken for granted.

Whenever I read a book set in a different country, I take a lot time looking at photos and watching documentaries from that country.  Albania, and specifically the citadel of Gjirokaster, where this book takes place, were fascinating to learn about.  I didn't know that cities of stone built on such steep topography really existed.  I thought they only existed in fairy tales and fantasy movies.

This book was slow, but I made it through.  I was glad that I did because it is based on the true story of the authors childhood.  It is yet another perspective of WWII.  I have learned that there was a vast difference in the development level of different cities during this time period.  Many small, mountain villages lived very primitively still.  I've come across this same realization as I've read other books set in the same time period.  As I was reading Eleni, which is set in Greece during the same time as this book, it mentioned Albanian villages on the border of Greece.  My mind immediately remembered what was going on at the same time in Albania because I had previously read this book.  It was an odd feeling to have two books converge unexpectedly the way these two did.  All in all, I enjoyed researching and viewing photos from this country more than reading this book.

My Ratings:

Well written:  No

Easy to follow:  It took some getting use to

Held my attention:  It was hard

Would I recommend this to a friend:  No
Did it represent the country: Yes

Content:

Sexual content:  Some indirect references to sexual orientation

Violence:  Yes
Genre:  Historical

Pages: 301