The Traitor's Niche: Kadare Ismail - Hardcover

Kadare, Ismail

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 184655845X ISBN 13: 9781846558450

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2017

Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE

At the heart of the Ottoman Empire, in the main square of Constantinople, a niche is carved into ancient stone. Here, the sultan displays the severed heads of his adversaries. People flock to see the latest head and gossip about the state of the empire: the province of Albania is demanding independence again, and the niche awaits a new trophy...

Tundj Hata, the imperial courier, is charged with transporting heads to the capital – a task he relishes and performs with fervour. But as he travels through obscure and impoverished territories, he makes money from illicit side-shows, offering villagers the spectacle of death. The head of the rebellious Albanian governor would fetch a very high price.

The Traitor’s Niche is a surreal tale of rebellion and tyranny, in a land where armies carry scarecrows, state officials ban entire languages, and the act of forgetting is more complicated than remembering.

About this title

Review

"The narrative unfurls with the shifting intensity of a dream, enriched by unsettlingly surreal details... It is a brilliant examination of the way that authoritarian structures operate: Kafka on a grander political scale." (Sunday Times)

"Although on the surface this is a deeply compelling historical novel, its scope is wider. At heart, what Kadare seeks to demonstrate is the terrible nature of a world in which every human element is suborned to the state... Kadare well deserves his growing European audience." (Daily Telegraph)

"An extraordinary and complex novel whose time has come...40 years after its initial publication [in Albanian]" (Herald)

"In John Hodgson’s lucid translation, The Traitor’s Niche is absorbing from start to finish. Kadare’s allegorical burlesque has rarely been so trenchant." (Spectator)

"The novel is a hymn to language, something that, as Ottoman bureaucrats intent on obliterating it instinctively know, and as Kadare’s novels prove, is not easily silenced" (Claire Allfree Daily Mail)

"bewitching novel" (Daily Telegraph Best Books for Summer 2017)

"Kadare [writes] with a sense of irony and a dark humour that often rise to the heights of absurdity, even when describing the most extreme situations." (Judith Vidal-Hall Literary Review)

"Kadare has said that he believes “dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible”. The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship and this extraordinary novel, though tempered and surreal, is an unquestionably defiant one." (Robert Eustace Daily Telegraph)

"A wonderful exploration of European and Ottoman history that is not easily put down once opened. The examination of imperial politics and people’s desire for independence is riveting and imaginative" (Pól Ó Muirí Tablet)

"Bewitching." (Daily Telegraph)

Book Description

A surreal, chilling tale of rebellion and tyranny in the Ottoman Empire, by the winner of the Man Booker International Prize

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 184655845X
• ISBN 13: 9781846558450
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208