“Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible... The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
Figure timeline
Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare was an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. He was a leading international literary figure and intellectual, focusing on poetry until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army, which made him famous internationally.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · Albanian writer (1936–2024) · poet · novelist · translator · writer · also Ismail Kadare, Ismail Kadaré, Prince of Asturia, Kadare
Born 28 January 1936 · Died 1 July 2024 · Q179695
85 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
6 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
I became familiar with literature before I knew freedom, so that it was literature that led me to liberty, not the other way around. Faith in literature and in the creative process brings protection. It generates antibodies that allow you to struggle against state terror.
77%Wikiquote (en)Source
2026· 9 entries
“I became familiar with literature before I knew freedom, so that it was literature that led me to liberty, not the other way around. Faith in literature and in the creative process brings protection. It generates antibodies that allow you to struggle against state terror.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“It was only a phrase that went from mouth to mouth and was never quite swallowed.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“And everything would be different, different.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“If an animal has to be sacrificed when a new bridge is built, what will it take to build a whole new world?”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“To tell the truth, this was one of the few cases in which she had not told him just what she was thinking. Usually, she let him know whatever thoughts happened to come to her, and indeed he never took it amiss if she let slip a word that might pain him, because when all was said and done that was the price one paid for sincerity.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“The days were heavy and sticky. All identical, one the same as the other. Soon they would even get rid of their one remaining distinction, the shell of their names: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“Can one move an empire as if it were a house?”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“s Daughter – a direct critique, set in the 1970s, of the oppressive regime in Albania. It was smuggled out of the country, with the help of Kadare”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
2025· 1 entry
The Guardian: Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
2024· 8 entries
WSLS 10: Thousands pay their respects to renowned Albanian writer Ismail Kadare at his state funeral
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: ‘An ancient shadow permeates his work’: Alberto Manguel on the genius of Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: Ismail Kadare obituary
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: A life in quotes: Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
KSAT: Albania's world-renowned novelist Ismail Kadare dies at 88
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: Ismail Kadare, giant of Albanian literature, dies aged 88
- #news
- #headline
Died 2024-07-01.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
Hindustan Times: A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
2023· 3 entries
Kadare was granted citizenship of Kosovo
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Was granted citizenship of Kosovo, by president Vjosa Osmani
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kadare won the America Award in Literature for a lifetime contribution to international writing
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2020· 2 entries
Awarded Neustadt International Prize for Literature (2020).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
The Guardian: The Doll by Ismail Kadare review – a fascinating study of difficult love
- #news
- #headline
2019· 2 entries
Awarded Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (2019).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
And the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2020
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2018· 2 entries
Wall Street Journal: Ismail Kadare: The Conscience of His People
- #news
- #headline
Awarded International Nonino Prize (2018).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2017· 1 entry
The Guardian: Amos Oz and Ismail Kadare named on Man Booker international prize longlist
- #news
- #headline
2016· 2 entries
The Guardian: A Girl in Exile by Ismail Kadare review – learning to live with the dead
- #news
- #headline
Kadare became the first Albanian Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur recipient, with the award being given to him by French president François Hollande
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2015· 3 entries
Awarded Commander of the Legion of Honour (2015).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Jerusalem Prize (2015).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Kadare was awarded the bi-annual Jerusalem Prize in Israel
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2012· 1 entry
The Guardian: The Fall of the Stone City by Ismail Kadare – review
- #news
- #headline
2010· 1 entry
SFGate: 'The Accident' by Ismail Kadare: review
- #news
- #headline
2009· 5 entries
Awarded Princess of Asturias Literary Prize (2009).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
The Guardian: 'I am not a political writer' says Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: Heather McRobie: Ismail Kadare doesn't need to be dissident to be good
- #news
- #headline
The set of complete works constituted 20 volumes
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kadare was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in Spain, for his literary works
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2008· 2 entries
The Guardian: Review: The Siege by Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
Kadare received the Flaiano Prize international award in Italy
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2006· 2 entries
The Guardian: Observer review: The Successor by Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: Review: The Successor by Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
2005· 3 entries
The Guardian: The backlash against International Man Booker prize winner Ismail Kadare
- #news
- #headline
Awarded International Booker Prize (2005).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Kadare received the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in the United Kingdom for the full body of his work
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2003· 1 entry
Received the Ovid Prize international award in Romania, and the Presidential Gold Medal of the League of Prizren from the President of Kosovo
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1998· 2 entries
Awarded Herder Prize (1998).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Was awarded the international Herder Prize in Austria
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1997· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctorate from University of Jean-Monnet-Saint-Étienne (1997).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1996· 5 entries
Awarded Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (1996).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
“Thick smoke like a herd of black horses was rising over the massive building and being blown around by the wind.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
France made him a foreign associate of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and in 2016, he was a Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur recipient
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Was made a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France (Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques), one of the five academies that make up the Institut de France learned society, in the
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“We propped each other up as we tried to write literature as if that regime did not exist. Now and again we pulled it off. At other times we didn”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
1994· 1 entry
Began to work on the first bilingual volume of his work with the French publishing house Fayard
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1993· 1 entry
The novel was awarded the Prix Méditerranée Étranger in France
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1992· 5 entries
Awarded Prix mondial Cino Del Duca (1992).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded honorary doctorate of Grenoble-III University (1992).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Kadare was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca international literary award in France
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca; in 1998, the Herder Prize; in 2005, the inaugural Man Booker International Prize; in 2009, the Prince of Asturias Award of Arts; and in 2015, the Jerusalem Prize
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
From the University of Grenoble III in France, in 2003 from the University of Pristina in Kosovo, and in 2009 from the University of Palermo in Italy
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1990· 2 entries
Kadare requested a meeting with Albanian president Ramiz Alia, at which he urged him to end human rights abuses, implement democratic and economic reforms, and end the isolation of Albania
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
To escape the Communist regime and its Sigurimi secret police, he defected to Paris
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1981· 1 entry
Kadare published The Palace of Dreams, an anti-totalitarian fantasy novel
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1980· 1 entry
Kadare published the novel Broken April, about the centuries-old tradition of hospitality, blood feuds, and revenge killing in the highlands of north Albania in the 1930s
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1978· 1 entry
Published the novel The Three-Arched Bridge, a political parable set in 1377 in the Balkans, narrated by an Albanian monk
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1975· 1 entry
That poked fun at the Albanian Communist bureaucracy, he was denounced, narrowly avoiding being shot, and was ultimately sent to do manual labour in a remote village deep in the central Albania countryside for a short ti
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1971· 1 entry
Kadare published the novel Chronicle in Stone, in which the narrator is a young Albanian boy whose old stone city hometown is caught up in World War II, and successively occupied by Greek, Italian, and German forces
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1970· 4 entries
Career landmark: Member of the Parliament of Albania (1970–1982).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Kadare published Kështjella (The Castle or The Siege) which was celebrated in both Albania and Western Europe, seeing a translation into French in 1972
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The older generation of Albanian writers and dogmatic literary critics became extremely embittered against the "darling of the West": "This novel was published by the bourgeoisie and this cannot be accepted", said a repo
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
In Paris by publisher Albin Michel, led to Kadare's international breakthrough
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1967· 1 entry
Albania launched its own Cultural Revolution
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1965· 1 entry
Was labelled "decadent" and banned upon publication; it was Kadare's second ban
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1964· 1 entry
Wrote Përse mendohen këto male (What are these mountains thinking about
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1963· 1 entry
At 26 years of age, Kadare published his novel The General of the Dead Army, about an army general and a priest who, 20 years after World War II, are sent to Albania to locate the remains of fallen Italian soldiers and r
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1962· 1 entry
Kadare published an excerpt from his first novel as a short story under the title Coffeehouse Days in a communist youth magazine
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1961· 1 entry
Published a volume of poetry entitled Shekulli im (My Century)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1959· 1 entry
Also wrote his first novel, Qyteti pa reklama (The City Without Signs), a critique of socialist careerism in Albania
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1957· 1 entry
Published a poetry collection entitled Ëndërrimet (Dreams)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1954· 1 entry
Published his first collection of poems, Frymëzime djaloshare (Boyish inspirations)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1936· 1 entry
Born 1936-01-28.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth
1910· 1 entry
Brazil and starring Rodrigo Santoro, which was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event