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The Palace Of Dreams
The Palace Of Dreams
Jan 27, 2026 12:29 AM

Author:Ismail Kadare,Barbara Bray

The Palace Of Dreams

Translated by Barbara Bray from the French version of the Albanian by Jusuf Vrioni

At the heart of the Sultan's vast empire stands the mysterious Palace of Dreams. Inside, the dreams of every citizen are collected, sorted and interpreted in order to identify the 'master-dreams' that will provide the clues to the Empire's destiny and that of its Monarch. An entire nation's consciousness is thus meticulously laid bare and at the mercy of its government...

The Palace of Dreams is Kadare's macabre vision of tyranny and oppression, and was banned upon publication in Albania in 1981.

Reviews

Kadare's most daring novel, one of the most complete visions of totalitarianism ever committed to paper

—— Vanity Fair

If there is a book worth banning in a dictatorship, this is it

—— Guardian

Kadare's delicately misted view of another world (as much internal as totalitarian) lives up to the splendour of his title

—— Independent on Sunday

Inexorably takes your breath away

—— Herald

'Persistently amusing, good-hearted and shrewd'

—— Sunday Times

'This has everything to recommend it...one of his most inventive'

—— Daily Telegraph

'Pratchett's most intriguing yet'

—— The Times

This novel is a searing, haunting, yet beautiful masterpiece. The story resonates in the mind long after the last page is turned. Buy it. Read it

—— Scotland on Sunday

An affecting and absorbing novel

—— Sunday Times

A brilliant tour de force, Brave New World may be read as a grave warning of the pitfalls that await uncontrolled scientific advance. Full of barbed wit and malice-spiked frankness. Provoking, stimulating, shocking and dazzling

—— Observer

Digging to America is another superb novel, warm-hearted and funny

—— Caroline Moore , Spectator

A return to form by a great writer...beautifully done

—— Adam Mars-Jones , Observer

A small exquisitely painted canvas. Don't miss it

—— Woman & Home

Keen-eyed and funny

—— Victoria Lane , Daily Telegraph

There is so much truth here, as Tyler strips away the issue of ethnic difference to reach the heart of her complex and compelling matter

—— Julie Wheelwright , Indenpdent

Warm and optimistic, this story about adoption raises issues of belonging and identity

—— Bel Mooney , The Times

Tyler possesses a remarkable ability to render the ordinary extraordinary, which makes reading her work like tucking into tea and cake on a cosy Sunday afternoon

—— Kathryn Mille , Time Out

Full of excruciatingly comic set-pieces, this is an immensely satisfying, yet subtle, read

—— Simon Humphreys , Mail on Sunday

Tenderly observed and lifted by humour, Digging to America is a complex novel that asks if anyone can ever truly fit in. In answering that question Ms Tyler has woven her magic once again

—— Economist

As in her previous books, the writing here makes for wholesome, comforting fare, spiced as always with urbane wit and a knack for nailing the small truths behind fine details

—— Globe and Mail

In Digging to America, Tyler exhibits her knack for softening the sharp edges of human contact, showing people with smudges of vulnerability on their faces as they dig toward each other

—— Toronto Star

Her prose is at once unpretentious and elegiac, like a photograph by Dorothea Lange, and her imagery has staying power

—— New York Times

Deft and wise prose... [Tyler's] skill at turning everyday occurrences into amazing storytelling gets better and better

—— Sunday Express

Redemptive

—— Daily Telegraph
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