Before George Kennan's formulation (surrender-on-the-installment-plan) of containment, and WAY before the Reagan/Casey/Kirkland/John Paul II policy of active engagement of Soviet communism, there was roll-back, wherein the west would aggressively seek liberation of sovietized countries. In the forties it seemed Albania was a good spot. If it was or not we wouldn't know, because the Soviet agent Philby, stuttering through bad teeth, had the British buffaloed. His betrayals caused deaths of those seeking liberty all over the world: Russia, Ukraine, Central Europe, and our servicemen in Korea. But here Bethell concentrates on one act: Philby's actions in Albania. Paramilitary forces were to be inserted, Enver Hoxha to be deposed, our natural allies liberated. Instead, the treason of one man left the operation destroyed, the participants slaughtered and or tortured, and Albania cast into decades of marxist darkness.

A great read for someone who is intereseted in the Balkan issues and the U.S. policies regarding balkan countries.

I hope the world will finally come to acknowledge that Albanian leader Comrade Hoxha was a true literary innovator as well as being at the cutting edge of political revoultion. Joseph Dzhugashvili acquired his name Stalin ' Man of Steel ' because of his freedom from stifling bourgeois prejudice about such petty matters as human rights and morality. Enver Hoxha applied the same philosophy to his prose style, scorning such outdated concepts as 'readability', 'clarity', 'coherence' and 'paragraphs'. 'Clunky', 'wooden', 'excruciatingly tedious' and 'intellectually threadbare' were compliments in his book. He wore them as badges of pride when ignorant western critics hurled them at him, just as he would later sneer at the same narrow-minded characterisation of his workers' paradise, People's Albania, as a 'Stalinist hellhole' and 'totalitarian nightmare'. At a party conference in Moscow in the early 1930s, Hoxha first tried out his new, groundbreaking style in an eleven-hour speech on the problems of pasteurising goat's milk in the Soviet Autonomous Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Twenty-seven delegates were (literally) bored rigid. The surviving members of the audience rapturously acclaimed Hoxha as Svinetsin' or Man of Lead- so lifeless was his prose, even when set besides the extraordinary achievements of previous communist writers; and Russian scientists were inspired to establish the Hoxha as the standard unit in the measurement of tedium, until it was superseded by the metric Honecker in the mid-1970s.

Hoxha's writing is unbelievably dense. In fact, calling it 'leaden' is no exaggeration as Albanian engineers actually used copies of this book to line nuclear shelters in Tirana, due to its amazing qualities as an anti-radiation shield. I'm glad to see that Hoxha's radical approach to prose style is still alive today in the work of Western academics, who are still 'pushing the envelope' by exploring the trail of obscurantism and cackhanded writing once blazed by this courageous pioneer. The fact that the Nobel Prize for Literature went to a rogue like Solzhenitsyn and not to the avant-garde Albanian is truly criminal. But maybe, thanks to works like this, many more readers will at last be able to acclaim Enver Hoxha as Svinetsin ' Man of Lead.

The years between 1992 and 1995 were halcyon days in Albania, when the first heady drafts of liberation were inhaled in the post-communist era. There are stories of ordinary people in this book, interviews of heads of state, and rememberances by high officials wondering what their next step should be.

From 1992 to 1995, Albania was awash in Foreign aid from governments and transfer payments from relatives in exile abroad. Patriots and student groups trekked to New York daily,were feeted in restaurants, and returned renewed with a sense of the possible. Journalists wrote harrowing stories of life in communist Albania, this editor translated them, and published them in My Albania Ground Zero. Often, they were the first published pieces by writers who could finally say what they wished.

Albania has since changed again, but the pieces in My Albania: Ground Zero read as bright as ever, possibly because they were written in a time that has become a brief interlude in between the monolithic grimness of communism and the madness of anarchy that followed it.

Contains black and white photos, Interviews, declassified documents highlighting relations between the U.S. and Albania during the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations.

My Albania: Ground Zero has been included in the seminal bibliography for Albanian studies which appeared in Albania in Transition by Elez Biberaj published by Westview Press, 1998

"the essays and photographs in this book offer an intimate and eye-opening look at that small underdeveloped nation." New York Newsday

"a book of broad coverage of the current situation in a country that most Americans know little about." Atlanta Journal/Constitution

Doruntine is set in the 11th or 12th century and is based upon an Albanian legend. The story of Doruntine is relatively simple - the only daughter of a large family marries a Bohemian man i.e. a two week trip home at best; the brother most attached to her gives his bessa that he will come for her when she needs to travel home; all nine brothers die in a plague infested war; three years later her dead brother comes for her, takes her home; she and her mother die.

Kadare places this legend into the investigative hands of a local official Stres. In his investigation Stres is forced to realize the elusiveness of truth, the "necessary" dishonesty of authority, his own relationship with Doruntine and wife, the forward thinking ideas that made the brother troublesome. Stres ultimately opts for bessa, that elusive honesty and social contract.

Don't start this book if you don't have time to read it straight through; it is riveting. However, it does have two flaws. First, in the context of a dead brother transporting Doruntine the comment that only Jesus Christ has arisen from the dead is used repeatedly; Lazarus appears to be forgotten. Secondly, while careful rereading might clear the confusion, I was left with a feeling of inconsistency between Stres' family life timeline and that of Doruntine's marriage. Perhaps I ought to knock a star off for these problems but Kadare is an exceptional writer - I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

I mean you never read a book like this before and I know it'll be difficuilt for you to understand how can it be that a promise break the chains of religion but this is the most powerful idea and the best written an author can write

I'm challenged by idea of reading "Doruntine" in English. I red it in albanian over and over and over again. An interesting to perfection albanian myth is transformed into a superb literature. Kadare has made all the right choices working towards these albanian-balkanian themes. The legend of Doruntine brought home by her dead brother Kostandin is a literature itself. Kadare walks further giving us a masterpiece.It is a political book too.The church, the police service, the prison bring to us the "lost empire of Arberia" then a totally christian domain. Forget the ideas; you should read the book because of style.

I picked up this book after a conversation with Mr. Fischer. It is an extrodinary read. His ability to lay out the facts while at the same time conveying the hopelessness of the situation are achieved amazingly well. Not only do we learn that the Italians were a pathetic military, but we learn that without the germans, they would have lost to peasants. A great read for anyone

A great book about a controversial period in Albanian history which was distorted by Hoxha regime glorifying the partisan war and the role of the Albanian Communist Party and recently by the socalled democratic political forces who threw everything in the garbage.
I am glad the book has been translated in Albanian. The book is a lesson for Albanian historians who are still guided by political passions.
The book tells you everything about everybody, Italian occupation, antifascist resistance, partisans, nationalists, puppet governments, British and American influence, Yugoslav influence, Albanian Communist party, Enver Hoxha, King Zog, German Occupation, Kosovo, Cameria, political trends, social and economical development, The Superpowers etc etc. I mentioned some of them.
The book is very proffessional but easy to read. I read it in 3 days. I simply could not wait to finish it. I grew up reading about the glorious liberation war of the partisans and communist. After the overthrow of the communist regime this war was not said and believed to be so glorious anymore. Even the actors changed places. The "good guys" became the "bad guys" and the "bad guys" became the "good guys".
Well this book will tell you who "the guys" were, what they did, what they did not do and why.

World War II was an event where mighty nations were pitted against each other and their national wills were focused on defeating the enemy states. However, among some of the smaller nations, the global perspective was masked by traditional local rivalries. In the area of the Balkans, the war was more a continuation of traditional ethnic and religious disputes and as much a civil war as a world one.
Albania was the most backward country in Europe at the start of the war, with very few paved roads, much less an industrial base. After the war, it was still the most backward in Europe, but it was ruled by a very hard line communist dictator, who rose to power despite the lack of industrial workers and being predominantly a Moslem country. Furthermore, unlike most of the other European nations who went communist after the war, there was no Soviet presence to execute the establishment of a communist regime. With so many unusual factors involved, the study of what happened in Albania before, during and after the war is a fascinating example of national structure based on many artificial internal and external borders.
If there is one broad lesson to be learned from this book it is that if your nation is invaded and occupied, a policy of cooperation with the invaders is a form of slow political suicide. The reason the communists were able to rise to power against such odds is due to the fact that they were consistent in fighting the invaders. When the more powerful groups vacillated and played both sides, their support declined until they were simply no longer credible as a national force. This left the small but generally disciplined and ruthless communists as the only viable national entity.
From the beginning of the Italian occupation in 1939 until the last organized German troops were driven out in 1945, the story is one of political opportunism, tribal rivalry, and shifting political alliances among the Albanian political factions and the invaders. However, the end result was a degree of national unity, albeit as a consequence of many executions and the most consistently repressive regime in Europe until the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985. Throughout all these years, there was also the exiled King Zog, a man who was the legitimate ruler until he fled the Italian occupation. Unfortunately, he was someone who commanded surprisingly little loyalty, either among the Albanian population at large or the foreign governments, who chose to ignore him as much as possible.
I found this book to be a forthright description of how difficult it is to govern countries in that part of the world and it contains many lessons for those who wish to intervene and make a difference in the events that transpire. It should be required reading for all those who wish to construct and implement a policy for that region.

When the war is over is always the time to collect the dead army.

Like many of Kadare's books it is not a read which will cheer you up. It is conveys a dark and almost oppressive feel which gives a real glimpse into life after the war and during the communist period. It is extremely insightful and enables the reader to better understand the mindset of the people and to some degree of the Communist party. If you are interested in this part of the world, then it is required reading. Kadare is an amazingly gifted writer. You will also want to read some of his other books, especially "Broken April".

at this book Kadare reveals the his genuis on what just a few contemporary writers of that time could ...and as a matter of fact i was deeply disappointed when he was not awarded the nobel prize.i have read many of his titles and they are a world class..

I admit to a bias. Helen Dore Boylston was a cousin of my grandfather's and I've been feeling terribly cheated since I read this book because I never met her. The story is remarkable. Two young women decide to drive from Albania to Paris. Their adventures are not, perhaps, quite as colorful as one might hope, but their daring and imagination in deciding upon such an voyage make your realize that Laura Ingalls Wilder really raised one heck of a brave and free daughter. I'd recommend it to anyone who's read the Little House Books or any of Helen Dore Boylston's books about Sue Barton.

Rose Wilder Lane- Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter- and Helen Dore Boyleston- author of the Sue Barton - were friends and traveled by car from Paris to Albania during the 1920's. This book is basically excerpts from their diaries and provides some wonderful insight into their lives and is great just because it is surprising in the way that people you never imagined were connected are.

The monk Gjon Ukcama, narrator of this rain-swept tale of the 14th century Balkans, says at one point, "...like all the affairs of this world, this story was both simpler and more involved than it appeared." This sentence could sum up the book. In one way, you can read it as a simple tale of how a bridge was built; beginning with medieval machinations, certain unforeseen setbacks, a sacrifice, and ultimate success. A second approach to the novel is to look at it as a little-known historical period brought to life through a legend-like tale---the decline of Byzantium, the subsequent rise of many small principalities in the Balkans together with the ever-rising crescendo of Ottoman power from the East, the new commercial combines directed from the Italian states and other countries further west. A third way of looking at THE THREE-ARCHED BRIDGE is to think of it as an allegory of Albanian history, showing Albania as one of those many small countries to which history "happens" without their having any say-so. In a fourth way, this is a tale about change in any period of human history. Can there be major changes without someone paying a steep price ? A person here, a social class there, an entire way of life over there....Kadare's story move with dark inevitability. Finally, you can read this novel as being about life and death: people struggle to bridge the gap, but the two worlds--of the living and of the dead---remain separate. The legend of an old Albanian bridge tells us this. We can't penetrate further.

A Christian monk, writing in the 14th century, might have seen the Turks as a threat, though animosity between Rome and Byzantium was worse than between Islam and Christianity. That is not to say that everyone at the time did see them like that. Many Christian peasants of southeastern Europe preferred to live under the less-rapacious, better-organized Ottomans. Many even gladly converted to Islam. So, although the Turks are portrayed as menacing in this novel, even as symbolic of death and disaster, I would like to point out that Albanian history has been re-written in the 19th and 20th centuries to suit those who opposed the decayed Turkish rule four centuries after the initial conquests. We are still dealing in legends, in other words. Kadare does not vary from nationalist history, which has to be seen for the legend it is. Other than that minor criticism, this is without doubt a five-star book. My only question is---when is Kadare going to get a Nobel Prize ?

Ismael Kadare short novel The Three-Arched Bridge may be read in an evening, but will provoke thoughts and wonder for many days. In broad outline, Kadare tells the story of the fall of the "west" and the coming of the Ottomans in fourteenth century Albania. The central occurrence in the novel is the building of a bridge. During the course of construction, several acts of sabotage occur. Several possible saboteurs are suggested (the holders of the ferry-boat concession, for example, are likely suspects), but one man is finally "caught" is interred -- buried alive -- in the bridge's middle arch. Kadare does a wonderful job in establishing mood, tone and atmosphere. Much of the book appears as if it might be allegorical to the modern situation in Albania, but I do not know the history of that country well enough to be sure of this. Regardless, however, of whether Kadare meant a modern allegory, this haunting story stands firmly on its own as, perhaps, a modern classic.

This is one of those gems which is simply written but can be read and reread many times. each time finding additional depths to the story. Set in fourteenth century Albania, the story makes use of ethnic pride in language, local legends, the resurgence of a banking and commerce society, and the coming of the Ottoman empire to the Balkans to create a story that explores the changes in society through the simple act of building a stone bridge across a river. The history needed to understand the history is provided in the story in a natural, unobtrusive style.

This exploration of change is never in the abstract. Rather it occurs within a tightly constructed plot of greed, murder and intrigue as recorded by a monk who serves as a translator. To populate such a story requires a significant number of characters. Kadare is amazing in his ability to flesh out a character in a handful of actions and observations. This results in the reader caring about each character and not confusing them.

This book deserves to be a must read on many readers' list. It will leave you seeking more of Kadare's work.

Interesting not for its "facts" - it's a revisionist propaganda piece, reworked in different forms throughout Hoxha's rule - but valuable to scholars and interested persons for that very reason. For those with proper background, the work is interesting for what it does not say, such as Stalin's willingness to let Tito of Yugoslavia "swallow" Albania in return for Tito's loyalty to Moscow. Tito's refusal to accept this bribe helped bring on Moscow's wrath as well as saved Albania and Hoxha. This book is also useful in revealing the mindset of old Communists in Russia and elsewhere who still idealize the Stalin myth.

Enver Hoxha was one of the greatest thinkers and leaders who ever lived. He managed to maintain "cold" wars with the US, USSR, and China at the same time!

It is because of Hoxha's genius that Albania became the paradise it is today.

Everything he ever wrote -- shopping lists, postcards, purge lists, death sentences, should be read by every human being many times.

...The work showes clearly the work of an outstanding writer, thinker and fighter for the victory of socialism. In his work comerade Hoxha explains how all his moves in international relations were to ensure the independence of Albania as well as to ensure the final triumph of socialism in his country for the benefit of his countrymen.