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Yolina · 10-07-2013, 11:39 AM

Could well be that 2 layers of translation is a bit much

but it flows rather nicely in French (which Kadare speaks rather well incidentally; I think he wrote The Pyramid in French) Some of my favourites in no particular order which you might want to try: the Three Arched Bridge (that's the first I read some, erm, 25-odd years ago!), Chronicle in Stone, Three Elegies for Kosovo.
The thing with his books is that a lot of them have layers to them, with so many having been written under the regime of Enver Hoxha and all that (IIRC The Ghost Rider - "catchy" name for the English edition btw - and several others were banned). He got political asylum in France in 1990 so anything written after that date is a bit different.

I'll have a look through my books and see what else I can come up with.

For the Russians, I really liked Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov

Edit: add Out by Natsuo Kirino to the Japanese pile

J.M Coetzee is from South Africa I think

French: Jean Levi Le Grand Empereur et ses Automates (I think the English title is The Chinese Emperor) and gaaaah unfortunately La Nuit Singuliere by Pierre Jakez Helias doesn't seem to have been translated to English

10-07-2013, 11:39 AM	#15
Yolina Wizard Posts: 1,179 Karma: 11573197 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: London, UK Device: Voyage	Could well be that 2 layers of translation is a bit much but it flows rather nicely in French (which Kadare speaks rather well incidentally; I think he wrote The Pyramid in French) Some of my favourites in no particular order which you might want to try: the Three Arched Bridge (that's the first I read some, erm, 25-odd years ago!), Chronicle in Stone, Three Elegies for Kosovo. The thing with his books is that a lot of them have layers to them, with so many having been written under the regime of Enver Hoxha and all that (IIRC The Ghost Rider - "catchy" name for the English edition btw - and several others were banned). He got political asylum in France in 1990 so anything written after that date is a bit different. I'll have a look through my books and see what else I can come up with. For the Russians, I really liked Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov Edit: add Out by Natsuo Kirino to the Japanese pile J.M Coetzee is from South Africa I think French: Jean Levi Le Grand Empereur et ses Automates (I think the English title is The Chinese Emperor) and gaaaah unfortunately La Nuit Singuliere by Pierre Jakez Helias doesn't seem to have been translated to English Last edited by Yolina; 10-07-2013 at 12:11 PM.