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The Concert

Ismail Kadare

3.78 · Rating details · 246 ratings · 24 reviews

In Enver Hoxha's Albania, news was closely guarded and speculation forever rife. When an engineer stepped on the foot of a visiting Chinese man, a Diplomatic incident resulted, and couriers between Tirana and Beijing carried back and forth annotated X-rays of The Foot. Was the sudden tension between the two allies connected with the punishment meted out to a group of ...more

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Paperback, 448 pages

Published December 22nd 2005 by Harvill Secker (first published 1988)

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Nov 17, 2017 Jim Fonseca rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: albanian-authors, historical-novel

The author, Kadare, is the classic writer of Albanian times under communism. This historical novel focuses on the period, roughly 1972-1978, when Albania had allied itself with Red China rather than Russia. But the Albanian leader, Enver Hoxha (he needs a nickname so I’ll give him one: Crazy Man) is splitting with Mao over Mao’s invitation to Nixon to visit China.

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Mao is losing it too – he’s 80 and “living in a cave” (actually an underground house). His much younger ex-movie-star wife is running The author, Kadare, is the classic writer of Albanian times under communism. This historical novel focuses on the period, roughly 1972-1978, when Albania had allied itself with Red China rather than Russia. But the Albanian leader, Enver Hoxha (he needs a nickname so I’ll give him one: Crazy Man) is splitting with Mao over Mao’s invitation to Nixon to visit China.

description

Mao is losing it too – he’s 80 and “living in a cave” (actually an underground house). His much younger ex-movie-star wife is running the show behind the scenes and after Mao’s death she will become infamous as part of the “Gang of Four.” She is anti-art, anti-literature and anti-music. So the book is not just about Albania but also about simultaneous goings-on in China. Mao thought that his entrée into Albania would help spread his brand of communism throughout Europe.

The fictional story focuses on a young married woman with kids whose brother has just committed a crime against the state. The brother has been kicked out of the communist party which has tremendous implications for the entire extended family: it will impact their jobs, their ability to get housing, the ability of her daughter to get a colleges scholarship, and so on. Meanwhile she’s still recovering from the recent death of her sister and she’s worried that her husband is having an affair. While the families in the story are urban and educated, they are just one generation away from peasants divining the future from chicken entrails as portrayed in the author’s novel Chronicle in Stone. Instead they read coffee grounds around the table!

description

While all this is going on, the sub-stories focus on the impact of the impending China-Albania breakup. There’s a race to the bottom in delegations and exchanges between the two countries: fewer, and lower level people; the newspapers report gatherings of diplomats as cordial rather than warm and friendly, etc.

The main character’s husband has to travel to China and is overwhelmed by all the sayings and slogans: “the two just and the three unjust things, the four chief recommendations, the seven faults, the five virtues and the ten evils, etc.” Mao’s attitude was “People who remember too much are a danger to us.”

A quote I liked: “…Besnik facing life’s ups and downs with such calm indifference, Silva had wondered whether this was because he had already had his full quota of happiness.”

An Albanian word I liked: “sybukura” – a woman with beautiful eyes.

I much preferred this author’s novel "Chronicle in Stone" to Concert. This book seemed overly long and a bit of a chore to read at times. There are too many family names to absorb at first and a bit too much about politics in China, especially speculation related to the mysterious death in an air crash of a Chinese leader who might replace Mao - Lin Biao. The writing is literary but not exceptional.

top photo of Albania's capital, Tirana, from tirana.albania-car-rentals.com
bottom photo of Tirana from alamy.com
...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, 20th-century, fiction, 1001-book

Koncert ne fund te dimrit: roman = Le concert = The Concert, Ismail Kadare
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و یکم ماه آوریل سال 2012 میلادی
عنوان: کنسرت در پایان زمستان؛ نویسنده: اسماعیل کاداره؛ مترجم: مهین میلانی؛ تهران، نشر مرکز، 1375؛ در 575 ص؛ شابک: 9643051137؛
اسماعیل کاداره (زاده 28 ژانویه سال 1936 میلادی) نویسنده، شاعر و روزنامه نگار آلبانی است. در دهه 1990 میلادی آلبانی را ترک و به فرانسه پناهنده شد. انتشار کتابهایش مدتها در آلبانی ممنوع بود، ولی در فرانسه با استقبال روبرو شد. کاداره در سال 1996 Koncert ne fund te dimrit: roman = Le concert = The Concert, Ismail Kadare
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و یکم ماه آوریل سال 2012 میلادی
عنوان: کنسرت در پایان زمستان؛ نویسنده: اسماعیل کاداره؛ مترجم: مهین میلانی؛ تهران، نشر مرکز، 1375؛ در 575 ص؛ شابک: 9643051137؛
اسماعیل کاداره (زاده 28 ژانویه سال 1936 میلادی) نویسنده، شاعر و روزنامه نگار آلبانی است. در دهه 1990 میلادی آلبانی را ترک و به فرانسه پناهنده شد. انتشار کتاب‌هایش مدت‌ها در آلبانی ممنوع بود، ولی در فرانسه با استقبال روبرو شد. کاداره در سال 1996 میلادی به عضویت فرهنگستان علوم اخلاقی و سیاسی فرانسه درآمد و پس از آن نیز به عنوان افسر «لژیون دونور» معرفی شد. نخستین رمان ایشان «ژنرال ارتش مرده» در سال 1961 میلادی منتشر شد، و پس از آن کم و بیش 20 رمان و چندین کتاب شعر به چاپ رسانده‌ است
آثار: ژنرال ارتش مرده - ترجمه مجید حاتم انتشارات فکر روز؛ آوریل شکسته - ترجمه قاسم صنعوی، نشر مرکز. رمان در فهرست 1001 کتاب است؛ رویدادهای شهر سنگی - ترجمه جلال‌الدین کزازی، نشر مرکز. رمان در فهرست روزنامه گاردین ( 1000 رمان که هر شخص باید بخواند) قرار دارد؛ کنسرت در پایان زمستان - ترجمه مهین میلانی، نشر مرکز، رمان در فهرست 1001 است
نحوه زندگی مردم آلبانی، در زمان خراب شدن روابط آلبانی و چین، و نحوه ی زندگی در جوامع کمونیستی است. «سیلوا» کارمند یک وزارتخانه است، «گیرگی» همسرش حامل نامه هایی است که چین و آلبانی برای هم میفرستند. برادرش «آریان» در ارتش دچار مشکل شده، و خواهرش «آنا» که فوت کرده هنوز در ذهن آنها جاری ست. شایعاتی در باره ی «آنا» و «اسکندر برمما» نویسنده معروف وجود داشته، و گفته میشده که کتاب «برای فراموشی یک زن» برای آنا نوشته شده، زمانی که آنا تقاضای طلاق داده شوهرش بحث را به دادگاه میکشد که اسکندر موجب تقاضای آنا بوده است، آنگاه متوجه میشوند، «بسنیک» قرار است با آنا ازدواج کند. لیندا همکار سیلوا نیز عاشق بسنیک است. اسکندر عاشق آناست، درخت لیمویی که اول داستان به درون خانه میآید در پایان شکوفه میدهد
نقل از کتاب: کنسرت در پایان زمستان
هربار که زمستان بر شیشه های پنجره ها بکوبد، تو، هرچند هم که نباشی، باز برمیگردی. حتی اگر به شکل موسیقی، عزا و صلیب هم درآیی، باز تو را میشناسم و به سویت پر میکشم. پایان نقل. ا. شربیانی ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Aggeliki rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Κεντρικό θέμα οι σχέσεις Κίνας-Αλβανίας κατά την δεκαετία του 70. Ο Kadare γράφει υπό καθεστώς κομμουνισμού και αυτό φωνάζει στο κείμενό του. Η ιστορία του πλαισιώνεται από πολλούς χαρακτήρες ακόμη, ίσως μάλιστα πάρα πολλούς για να μπορέσεις να συγκρατήσεις τον ρόλο του καθενός αλλά και την σύνδεσή του με όλους τους υπόλοιπους αλλά και την ίδια την ιστορία. Κυβερνητικοί υπάλληλοι, οικογενειακά δράματα, πολιτικές και όχι μόνο αναταραχές μπλέκονται περίεργα σε μια ιστορία που δεν κατάφερε ωστόσο ...more

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Sep 19, 2013 Adam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: albania, balkan

In 1978, China broke off its trade and other relations with Enver Hoxha's Albania. The 2 countries had been begun to be closely allied in the early 1960s, as was first reported in the West by the West German journalist Harry Hamm in his book Albania first published in English in 1962.

The Concert by Ismail Kadaré is a long novel set both in his native land Albania and also in the People's Republic of China during the final months of the friendship between the 2 distantly separated nations. Not In 1978, China broke off its trade and other relations with Enver Hoxha's Albania. The 2 countries had been begun to be closely allied in the early 1960s, as was first reported in the West by the West German journalist Harry Hamm in his book Albania first published in English in 1962.

The Concert by Ismail Kadaré is a long novel set both in his native land Albania and also in the People's Republic of China during the final months of the friendship between the 2 distantly separated nations. Not only were they distantly separated geographically, but also culturally as his novel illustrates very clearly.

The reader is plunged into the world and family life of the upper echelons of Albanian bureaucracy. Their attempts to lead 'normal', almost bourgeois lives, are constantly overshadowed by the secretive machinations of Enver Hoxha's repressive regime. Plots are hatched (by whom we can never be sure), people are arrested and then released, consciences are searched (both by their owners and also by the state), people are sent from Tirana to the provinces and also to China, & self-interests compete with state interests. Kadaré's novel reveals both how normal and at the same time how abnormal life was in Albania. Friends visit each other, share meals and drink coffee together, but it only takes a telephone call or a rumour to cause turbulence in cosiness of the social setting.

I will not attempt to summarise the complex plot consisting of a number of sub-plots that gradually mesh together. However, as the story unfolds, so does the knot that had tied together the Chinese and Albanians. The effects that this unravelling has both on the Albanians and their soon-to-be former Chinese allies is beautifully conveyed in this book.

My only criticism of this long story, is that I found that the author's writing was less tight, less economical, and less concise, than in many of the other of his books that I have read. Apart from this, the book is a fascinating account of a peculiar episode in Balkan history written in Tirana (between 1977 & 1988, but first published in France) by someone who experienced it first hand.

Reviewed by the author of ALBANIA ON MY MIND and other books about the Balkans ...more

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Nov 20, 2019 Stephen Hayes rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction-general, history, politics, tshwane-library

I've read a couple of Ismail Kadare's books before -- see Chronicle in stone — book review | Khanya -- but the others were set in the time before Albania was ruled by Enver Hoxha, who famously made it, for 27 years, the world's only truly atheist county.

Albania was almost unique among communist countries in becoming increasingly isolated from the world, including other communist countries. It broke first from the USSR, but for a while maintained friendship with China, but eventually even that I've read a couple of Ismail Kadare's books before -- see Chronicle in stone — book review | Khanya -- but the others were set in the time before Albania was ruled by Enver Hoxha, who famously made it, for 27 years, the world's only truly atheist county.

Albania was almost unique among communist countries in becoming increasingly isolated from the world, including other communist countries. It broke first from the USSR, but for a while maintained friendship with China, but eventually even that friendship dissolved, and during the 1970s Albania's ties with China loosened and Hoxha came to regard the Chinese, like the Soviets, as "revisionists".

This novel is set in that period, and shows the effects of the changing relationship with China on families that were mostly fairly close to the centres of power in Albania. Relations between the two countries cooled when Albania crtiticised the Chinese decision to invite US President Nixon to visit China in 1972, and by the time of Chairman Mao's death in 1976 the break was almost complete. And now, 40 years later, we see China treating African countries in the same way as it treated Albania in the 1970s.

... everyone talked of how work had slowed down on many big construction sites, especially those building hydro-electric plants in the north. This was because of hold-ups in supplies of equipment from China. Freighters now took and unconscionably long time to reach their destination, and when they did arrive they might be carrying the wrong cargo. On two occasions ships had turned back without even entering Durres harbour. All this was said to be part of China's famous "turn of the screw". Cafes in Tirana were full of stories about this tactic: no one realized that one day the whole country would be its victim.

The "concert" of the title took place towards the end of this period, where the audience was far more important than the performers, and Albania, like the rest of the world, was watching to see who was invited and who was not, who turned up and who did not.

At the centre of the story is Silva Dibra, a civil servant like her husband Gjergj (whose job takes him on visits to China), their schoolgirl daughter Brikena, Silva's brother Arian, an officer in a tank regiment who was expelled from the Party for disobeying an order, and her dead sister Ana. It also features several of her work colleagues and friends and associates of Ana. One of her sister's associates was a writer, who also visited China, The life and work of Albanian writers and artists was restricted. As Kadare puts it:

...people reconciled themselves to the idea that it was going to be a dry autumn. Meanwhile all the other seasonal changes took place as usual: the leaves turned colour, the temperature dropped, the birds migrated. As usual too, painters flocked to headquarters of the Writers' and Artists' Union to get their annual permits to concentrate on autumnal themes.

In China, however, the Writers and Artist's Union had been abolished altogether in the Great Cultural Revolutuon of 1966/67. According to the thought of Chairman Mao, the "new man" did not need art and literature, which were bourgeois by their very nature. Rather than painting autumnal themes, they should be planting and harvesting rice.

Nevertheless I'm in two minds about the book. Kadare's descriptions of the Albanian characters grabs me, perhaps because, having lived there for a month, I can picture the streets of Tirana, the beaches of Durres, and the steel factory at Elbasan, which he mentions. But I'm put off by the bits where he tries to describe the thoughts of Chairman Mao. They are racist thoughts, and I wonder if they are the thoughts of a white racist imagining the thoughts of a Chinese racist, or whether Chairman Mao ever did have any thoughts like that. But there is too much that suggests that they are what a white racist imagines a Chinese racist might think.

And in the book the Albanian characters express racist thoughts about the Chinese, as the Chinese do about the Albanians. Of course an author does not necessarily share the sentiments expressed by his characters. But when Kadare is describing the thoughts of Mao while alone in a cave, these are not mediated through a character in the story, but are descibed directly.
...more

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Apr 02, 2017 Nihal Vrana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: world-literature

It is an unique and overall a disturbing book. The chapters from Mao's voice (Particularly the very first one) are pure stroke of genius and fills you with a kind of dread that is very hard to shrug off. The subtle sarcasm hidden in the book is delightful too.

There is this feeling of insignificance that pervades the book which I found particularly special. Superficially it can be defined as Kafkaesque but it is more than that. The self-created hells of Simon, Ekrem and Minister D for example ...more

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Sep 30, 2013 Kathleen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, history, owned, arc

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Kadaré is an Albanian writer who splits his time between Tirana, Albania and Paris. The Concert was first published in 1989 in French and this new English edition was released by Arcade Publishing on October 8th.

The book involves the relations between China and Albania during the 1970s, near the end of Mao Zedong's life. It follows several protagonists with intertwined lives and who all have some investment in the politics between the two countries. The author grew ...more

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Nov 17, 2009 Sean Hoskin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Replete with the intricacies of the lives of ordinary Albanians and contrasting them with the dynamics of the political relations with China at a time when a breaking off of alliance is imminent, The Concert weaves the intimate aspects of personal relationships with those on a grander scale, signifying and invoking a metaphoric refrain in which the personal and the political necessarily incline upon each other for understanding and meaning. The wayward ineptness of political officials-both in ...more

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Nov 30, 2013 Vikas Datta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Magnificent... the triumph of a storyteller's craft as Mr Kadare evokes - in almost surrealistic terms - the inanities and absurdities of life and politics in communist states. Tells you more about Albania and China and their relations that any factual history can... Some characters are a delight - Krams for one, and the minister of course

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Mar 29, 2016 ZaRi added it · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

کارهای بزرگ هیچ گاه از نزدیک خوب دیده نمی شوند. باید سال ها به عقب برگشت، و حتی قرن ها تا وسعت و عمق مسئله را دریافت...!
... هچ چیز ناخوشایندتر از این نیست که انسان با آشنایی در خیابان برخورد کند که از روبه رو نمی آید ، بلکه از پشت سرتان می آید و همان مسیر شما را طی می کند...!

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Apr 25, 2007 Zebardast Zebardast rated it it was ok · review of another edition

baratoon pish oomade ke nevisandeyi bashe ke ziad az khodesh khoshetoon naiad ,vali injoor pish biad ke kolli az ketabasho bekhoonin.dastane mano kadare ham inoor shode.che mishe kard;)

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Aug 26, 2012 David Bird rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: citoyens-book-group

Hard to know how to contextualize this rather alien book, but I am glad to have read it.

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Oct 31, 2017 Javier de la Peña Ontanaya rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Clásica novela de Ismail Kadare, en la que mezcla historia, sucesos reales y novela. La ambientación se sitúa en la Albania comunista de Enver Hoxha y las relaciones políticas, culturales y económicas con la China de Mao Zedong, en los últimos años de la vida de este.

Kadare muestra cómo es la sociedad albanesa de esa época, cómo se relacionan con los chinos que están en Albania como parte de la cooperación entre ambos países socialistas y cómo se relacionan entre ellos. Pone de manifiesto las ...more

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Dec 12, 2018 Nicky Harman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was fascinated by this novel. (I'm a sinologist so I was especially interested in the way that the Albanian characters see the Chinese. It's set during the [Chinese] Cultural Revolution, so that made it especially weird.) I loved the Albanian protagonists and thought the women were drawn particularly well. I sympathised with the Chinese characters, but I can't say I found them very human. Though they were plausible. Sadly, life in China back then really was like that. So I read through the ...more

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Dec 03, 2017 Jose Carlos rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Novela de largo aliento, de largo recorrido, un recorrido de 522 páginas fascinantes, El concierto tal vez sea la obra maestra de Kadaré, por lo que nos cuenta (la ruptura de relaciones entre China y Albania en 1978, catorce años después del traumático cisma con la URSS), por cómo nos lo cuenta (con una estructura circular, plena de personajes, en clave coral, con varias novelas cortas intercaladas) y por quienes nos lo cuentan (los propios personajes históricos como Mao, Hoxha, Lin Biao, y los Novela de largo aliento, de largo recorrido, un recorrido de 522 páginas fascinantes, El concierto tal vez sea la obra maestra de Kadaré, por lo que nos cuenta (la ruptura de relaciones entre China y Albania en 1978, catorce años después del traumático cisma con la URSS), por cómo nos lo cuenta (con una estructura circular, plena de personajes, en clave coral, con varias novelas cortas intercaladas) y por quienes nos lo cuentan (los propios personajes históricos como Mao, Hoxha, Lin Biao, y los anónimos, quienes reflejan esa vida cotidiana durante el comunismo que ya era la columna vertebral de El gran invierno).

Quizás, El concierto deba entenderse dentro del trabajo de Kadaré como una segunda parte o una continuación de El gran invierno. Algunos personajes son comunes a las dos novelas, y se retoman sus vidas tras los años pasados entre la ruptura con la URSS y la quiebra con China. Ambos textos componen, así, un díptico monumental sobre la intrahistoria que soportaron los albaneses, pero El concierto se muestra más profunda, inquisitiva, observadora, cautivadora, que El gran invierno. Si aquella podía considerarse como una capilla Sixtina del comunismo, esta sería toda una Ciudad del Vaticano, hirviente de personajes, por centenas, y de tramas entrelazadas. Y juntas, ambas novelas, conforman uno de los documentos más demoledores sobre los sufrimientos de los ciudadanos bajo las tiranías, así como un estudio de la psicología de los dictadores y de toda esa maldad que parece inherente al ser humano y asociada al poder.

El concierto es una novela mayúscula. Repleta de simbología, las cosas no quieren decir lo que parecen. Un traje azul de funcionario, un teléfono, un limonero, un cartel de neón, unos fuegos artificiales, sirven para que el autor ahonde, una y otra vez, en las raíces y los sufrimientos de quienes se han visto obligados a soportar las conductas mesiánicas de sus gobernantes. En ese sentido, si por El gran invierno algunas voces se alzaron poniendo en duda, molestas, por los retratos humanos que de Hoxha o Jruschev elaboraba Kadaré (sólo hay que leer entre líneas para ser consciente de lo demoledores que resultan), en El concierto no existe ni un solo resquicio a la duda: Mao es un recital de iniquidades, y los ministros y adláteres, conmilitones y chupatintas, tanto chinos como albaneses, que acompañan a los tiranos, aparecen representados como unos miserables criminales, cuando no son asesinos.

Mucho hay que decir de esta novela que, como una corriente marítima, guía al lector con una lectura de seda por sucesos que muy bien podrían resultarle lejanos y poco atractivos (su localismo era, tal vez, un problema para el lector medio de El gran invierno). Sin embargo, Kadaré hace atractivas las reuniones de comités, las sesiones de autocrítica y las reflexiones del propio Mao o de Hoxha. Se eleva de las páginas un mundo fascinante que se contiene a sí mismo y que contiene otros muchos.

Parte de culpa de ello, de esos mundos que se contienen en el texto, la tienen las narraciones insertadas (hasta cinco) a modo de –paradójicamente- cajas chinas. Una de ellas aporta una nueva reflexión de poder y el crimen con la reescritura de los sucesos de Macbeth y el asesinato del rey Duncan, otra es el prototexto de la futura novela Spiritus, un afortunadísimo ensayo general de la misma… y también hay algo de El expediente H.

El concierto es, así, también, cigoto de otros libros de Kadaré, quizás de algunos de los más brillantes, como si esta novela fuera principio o big-bang literario, destinada a conformar toda una constelación de futuros textos.

A retazos, pero siempre siguiendo la línea argumental general, con insertos de documentos oficiales, de conversaciones, de escuchas, de actas, de informes, de pensamientos de los propios líderes, se erige la estructura de El concierto, cuya lectura, una vez finalizada, provoca ganas de gritar la vieja consigna de Skanderbeg: la hora da Albania ha sonado.

En efecto, es la hora de la novela albanesa. ...more

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Oct 18, 2013 Ernie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this wonderful satire on Communism in Albania during the Chinese Cultural Revolution after Albania, spurned by the Soviet Union, had turned to support China. Mao and Zhou Enlai appear in cameo roles. For example from Mao: 'He'd come to believe that a head of state's most useful actions were those which remained incomprehensible not only to others but also to himself'.
When the central character Gjorgj is sent on a secret mission to China, he bears a locked briefcase with a letter from I enjoyed this wonderful satire on Communism in Albania during the Chinese Cultural Revolution after Albania, spurned by the Soviet Union, had turned to support China. Mao and Zhou Enlai appear in cameo roles. For example from Mao: 'He'd come to believe that a head of state's most useful actions were those which remained incomprehensible not only to others but also to himself'.
When the central character Gjorgj is sent on a secret mission to China, he bears a locked briefcase with a letter from the Albanian dictator, Enver Hoxha that has the temerity to ask Mao to cancel the coming secret visit of President Nixon. Mao, in the midst of the Cultural Revolution is furious and vows to take revenge on Albania by wrecking the trade and projects that the Chinese are engaged in there. Of his various plans, the drugging of Europe through increasing the marihuana trade is surpassed by his wife Jiang Qing who, inspired by the Cambodian revolution will defeminise European culture, thus controlling art, music and literature, starting with Albania. There the Communist Party secretary has already made the helpful suggestion that books be published without the writers’ names ‘because the glory belongs to the masses rather than to us’.
The reaction of the Albanians to the rejection by the Chinese encapsulates Kadare’s central opinion that for 600 years, Albanians have lived the delusion that their hour had come, a slogan much repeated and equally applicable to either triumph or disaster but mostly disaster. The satire is reinforced by the almost equal emphasis placed by diplomatic activity following an argument between Victor Hila, an Albanian translator and a minor Chinese diplomat which results in Hila losing his temper and deliberately stamping on the diplomat’s foot. I was reminded of the 19th century British War of Jenkins’ Ear.
Meanwhile in Tirana, the capital, Gjorgj’s wife Silva works in the department of construction where Kadare entertains me with the ludicrous attempts of the characters to interpret the strange gatherings of Chinese in the city, at the airport and best of all at what was to become the last exhibition of Chinese porcelain: did the positioning of the pots have significant meaning? These speculations and rumour mongering parallel the interpretations that the Albanian translators in Peking attempt to make of which Chinese leaders appear and in what order at various events and finally at the concert that brings the title to the novel. Zhou Enlai attends but looks like he is dying. Was Lin Bao murdered by a plane crash? If Mao is also dying, who will succeed him?
The novel commences with a Dickensian gathering of the wide range of characters at the birthday dinner for Gjorgj and Silva’s daughter and ends with a similar gathering for a funeral. Amid the political events, the domestic details and worries of the protagonists centre on Silva’s brother Arian, a tank commander who has been suspended and facing a disastrous expulsion from the party for disobeying an order. Here in the land of no curtains because ‘privacy is the beginning of trouble’, the personal really is political. The unravelment of this other secret event provides much of the comedy as the relevant minister ducks and weaves and the politburo investigation gets hopelessly entangled with the China question. The self criticisms (translated as ‘autocritiques’ here) are very funny and the spying through Mao’s ears (thousands of hidden microphones) are sadly very relevant to today. The events leading to the funeral ending bring the essential seriousness to the satire.
Apart from some overly long quotations from the novel that one of the translators is preparing, Kadare shows a Dickensian control of his numerous characters and the pace of his story telling. The novel, written in Albanian has been translated into French and again into English but it is the power of Kadare’s vision and the truth of his characters that impressed me. He truly is one of the great writers of our time.
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May 26, 2015 Geoff Wooldridge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Written in the 1980s but set in the 1970s, Ismail Kadare's The Concert is a black comedy about the breakdown in Sino-Albanian relationships, especially following the death of Mao Zedong.

The concert, which provides the title of the novel, plays only a very small part of this book about political machinations in both China and Albania. But it does signify the critical point at which Mao's death first becomes known.

The parts of the book set in Albania deal mostly with the lives of ordinary people, Written in the 1980s but set in the 1970s, Ismail Kadare's The Concert is a black comedy about the breakdown in Sino-Albanian relationships, especially following the death of Mao Zedong.

The concert, which provides the title of the novel, plays only a very small part of this book about political machinations in both China and Albania. But it does signify the critical point at which Mao's death first becomes known.

The parts of the book set in Albania deal mostly with the lives of ordinary people, although there are plenty of political and military connections.

The husband of Silva, a key character, is Gjergi, a diplomat of sorts, who travels frequently between Albania and China on various delegations.

There are numerous scenes set in the government office where Silva works, which provides some insights into the workings of the Albanian government. There are also numerous references to Silva's dead sister, Ana, and the complex network of relationships between some of the characters.

The parts of the novel set in China are mostly to do with the political activities of its senior officials, including Mao, Zhou Enlai and other members of the Politburo. There are plots aplenty amongst Mao's potential rivals, which leads ultimately to the death of Lin Biao in bizarre circumstances. But it is clear that Mao is losing his mind and his life.

Meanwhile, in Albania, encouraged by Zhou Enlai, an Albanian Minister orders a tank unit on manouvres to surround a Party Committee, but the order is refused by the tanks commanders, one of whom is Silva's brother.

This leads to a strange series of events, where initially the officers are expelled from the Party and jailed. They are soon released and an enquiry is held into the Minister's actions.

Following the death of Mao Zedong, there is significant political turmoil in China as rivals jostle for power, and the deterioration of the Sino-Chinese relationship is accelerated to total breakdown, just as the Albanian relationship with Russia was expunged several years earlier.

This is a complex but darkly humorous novel, about a series of event I had little previous knowledge of, but I found it just a little dull at times.

Perhaps only just 4 stars. ...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Brooke rated it liked it · review of another edition

I couldn't bring myself to finish this book. I was enjoying it but at the same time I couldn't make the connection to the characters. I wish I had been able to make it through the entire book but life is to short to stick with anything you can't go completely with.

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Oct 06, 2007 naureen rated it liked it · review of another edition

albania. a country i know nothing about. i thought it was a muslim country but people go to bars a lot in this book. the point of view shifts are nice so far. including one making mao zedong the narrator.

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Aug 29, 2016 Hrao14 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I didn't understand the metaphors in the book. Basically, didn't understand the book and didn't like any of the characters. Don't know why this won the international Booker prize!

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Nov 16, 2011 James rated it liked it · review of another edition

Two plots, Albanian party appartchiks during Hoekshe regime and Mao in his cave. Difficult, but interesting setting. Jess marriage?

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Feb 17, 2012 Kyle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Really enjoyed it. Sometimes felt it jumped around a bit too abruptly, but also enjoyed the variety of stories and characters.

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Apr 11, 2011 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, albania

KOBOBOOKS

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About Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare

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Ismail Kadare (also spelled Kadaré) is an Albanian novelist and poet. He has been a leading literary figure in Albania since the 1960s. He focused on short stories until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army. In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France. In 1992, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca; in 2005, he ...more

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“E ke menduar se po te largohesh kaq shume nga jeta njerezore, nga ajo qe ti me perbuzje e quan "malli i jetes", mund te percudnohesh kaq shume, saqe, po te duash te kthehesh prape, ajo s'ka per te te pranuar me, ashtu sic eshte e papranueshme nje fantazme? Gjepura kishte thene Kramsi, fjaleri mikroborgjeze, kurse tjetri kishte vazhduar: nje hije, ja c'je ti Krams.” — 10 likes

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