Kadaré, Ismaïl

Albanian author born in Gjirokastër in southern Albania near the border with Greece. His father was a postman. Ismail Kadaré grew up during the Second World War when his hometown was first invaded by the Italians and then by the Germans after which Albania became independent under the Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha. Kadaré studied language and literature at the University of Tirana and literature at the Gorky Institute in Moscow. He worked as an author and journalist in Tirana between 1960 and 1990 where he edited the French-language journal Les Lettres Albanaises. He started out as a poet, but he soon went over to prose. In 1990, he moved to France and settled in Paris with his family.