Albania mourns death of Kadare, whose novels defied dictatorship [Video]

Albanians will mark two days of national mourning for Ismail Kadare, their “greatest cultural monument”, after the acclaimed novelist — tipped several times for the Nobel literature prize — died of a heart attack at a Tirana hospital aged 88 on Monday.

Saying he was “lost for words” after Kadare’s death, Prime Minister Edi Rama declared the country’s flags will be flown at half-mast on July 2 and 3 out of respect for the man of letters.

Kadare was “now on the pedestal of eternity”, Rama added, while the president of neighbouring Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani hailed his “remarkable contribution to Albanian and world literature”.

Through the epic sweep of novels like “Broken April” and “The General of the Dead Army”, the writer used metaphor and quiet sarcasm to chronicle the grotesque fate of his country and its people under the paranoid communist dictator Enver Hoxha.

Despite being branded a traitor …