Cover Image

A girl in exile : requiem for Linda B.

by Kadare, Ismail,

Format: Print Book 2018
Availability: Available at 3 Libraries 3 of 3 copies

Available (3)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Main Library First Floor - Fiction Stacks FICTION Kadare
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  First Floor - Fiction Stacks
 
Call Number  FICTION Kadare
 
 
Mt. Lebanon Public Library Fiction KADARE Ismail
Location  Mt. Lebanon Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  KADARE Ismail
 
 
Shaler North Hills Library Fiction KADARE
Location  Shaler North Hills Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  KADARE
 
 

Summary
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice



"Erotic, paranoiac and lightly fantastical." -- The Wall Street Journal



"Ismail Kadare's readers are astonished every year when the Nobel committee overlooks him. . . . A Girl in Exile , published in Albanian in 2009, may rekindle the worldwide hopes." -- The New York Times Book Review



During the bureaucratic machinery of Albania's 1945-1991 dictatorship, playwright Rudian Stefa is called in for questioning by the Party Committee. A girl--Linda B.--has been found dead, with a signed copy of his latest book in her possession.



He soon learns that Linda's family, considered suspect, was exiled to a small town far from the capital. Under the influence of a paranoid regime, Rudian finds himself swept along on a surreal quest to discover what really happened to Linda B.



"At a time when parts of the world are indulging nostalgia for communism, Kadare's novel confronts the infuriating impossibility of art in an autocratic, anti-individualist system." -- The Washington Post



" A Girl in Exile confirms Kadare to be the best writer at work today who remembers--almost aggressively so, refusing to forget--European totalitarianism." -- The New Republic
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Albanian writer Kadare's (The Fall of the Stone City, 2013) latest is overt in its critique of totalitarianism. Waiting for his newest play, a controversial ghost story, to be cleared by the censor's office, dissident writer Rudian Stefa is called before the Party Committee about his connection to Linda B., a young suicide who had a signed copy of his book and a diary etched with his name. Linda, from the same remote town as Rudian's moody, mysterious lover, Migena, was a political internal exile, forbidden to visit the city she came to adore through Rudian's writing. Although he never met her, could he be responsible for her death? In considering an act of dramatic and perhaps supernatural resistance accomplished by two girls daughters of socialism, as the phrase went in a godforsaken Albanian province, Kadare offers new takes on his signature traits, the reanimation of old myths and the melding of fantasy and realism, of the grim and the surreal. Kadare is frequently mentioned as a Nobel contender, and his chances should only be enhanced by this odd and powerful novel.--Driscoll, Brendan Copyright 2018 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "A middle-aged writer's oblique connection to a young suicide is the avenue by which Kadare (The General of the Dead Army) provocatively explores the intrusive Albanian state apparatus of the 1980s. When the Party Committee summons writer Rudian Stefa, he worries artistic censors complained to the regime about his latest play. If not the play, perhaps he should worry about shoving his girlfriend Migena, or accusing her of being a spy. The regime's invasiveness becomes increasingly clear as the tragedy of the dead girl-who grew up in exile-unfolds and connects her to Rudian; Migena asked him at a signing to autograph a book "for Linda B." The authorities have Linda's copy of the book and her diary, which reveals an obsession with Rudian and provides clues to a desperate plan that involves Migena. Comparisons to Kafka are inevitable, but there's also some Joseph Heller here. Kadare successfully renders Big Brother, and, though Linda's hopeless scheme strains credulity, this is nonetheless a poignant narrative about exile. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Suicide victims -- Fiction.
Dramatists -- Fiction.
Communism -- Albania -- Fiction.
Albania -- Social conditions -- Fiction.
Publisher Berkeley, California :Counterpoint,2018
Edition First Counterpoint edition.
Other Titles E penguara.
Contributors Hodgson, John, 1951- translator.
Language English
Notes "First published in Albanian as E penguara: Rekuiem për Linda B. by Onufri ©2009"--Title page verso.
Description 185 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN 9781619029163
1619029162
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