Author:Ismail Kadare,David Bellos
Two Irish-American scholars from Harvard journey to Albania in the 1930s with a tape recorder (a 'new fangled' invention) in order to record the last genuinely oral epic singers. Their purpose, they say, is to show how Homer's epics might have been culled from a verbal tradition. But the local Governor believes its an elaborate spying mission and arranges for his own spy to follow them.The two dedicated scholars realise only too late that they have stumbled over an ants' nest.
This simple tale by Albania's most eminent and gifted novelist serves to lift the veil on one of the most secret and mysterious countries of modern Europe.
Witty and touching. It consolidates Kadare's reputation as one of the finest writers to emerge from communist Europe
—— Sunday TimesEloquent, engaging and poignant
—— Irish TimesA wicked and amusing satire of provincial life...it is also an elegiac celebration of the power of poetry
—— Times Literary SupplementFunny, strange, and melancholy
—— GuardianKnife-sharp satire...originality shines through
—— The TimesAnyone still wondering why Kadare won the inaugural Man Booker International Prize for literature in 2005 will be enlightened by this tragicomic gem
—— Daily TelegraphOutstanding
—— Vanity FairJean Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the past with such rich complexity
—— GuardianRedemption Falls is trauma incarnate, but its effect is both compassionate and luminous
—— TLSBooks of this quality demand to be reread to reveal more of their complexities and layers of meaning. Redemption Falls would reward this on the level of its rich textures of language alone
—— Sunday HeraldOne of the author's most affecting, honest and brilliant works. It is a searingly well written piece by a ridiculously underrated novelist
—— Sunday TelegraphEntertaining... Jacobson's prose is incisive and off-kilter, abrasive and often hilarious
—— The TimesFelix Quinn, the narrator of the book...explains it beautifully - and this is a very good novel... Feeling unsafe makes him feel alive. And loss, of course, is the wellspring of good storytelling
—— Evening StandardThe Act of Love is an ambitious and at times extremely uncomfortable novel
—— The TelegraphIt is an almost frighteningly brilliant achievement. Why did the Booker judges not recognise it?
—— The GuardianThis is a very good novel
—— ScotsmanJacobson's 10th novel is a moving, thought-provoking and darkly witty story of desire and love
—— Irish TimesTrollope explores, with infinite delicacy, the strands that make a family
—— Daily ExpressAn absorbing contemporary novel from one of our most perceptive writers
—— You MagazineTrollope has created a fount of bitchy tension which she manipulates with great skill
—— Evening Standard
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