Writer and academic Ismail Kadare celebrated his 88th birthday yesterday. Numerous congratulations were made the day before by names of literature, various institutions and beyond. The head of the Academy of Sciences also congratulated the writer the other day. “Long life, good health, art and inexhaustible thought”, says ASH. The Academy of Sciences brings to attention the creativity of Kadare. In 1954, exactly 70 years ago, Ismail Kadare published his first book, “Boyish Inspirations”. According to ASH, for seven decades he has been creating quality art for his contemporaries and for future times. “Ismail Kadare is the most famous Albanian writer of all time. His work is translated and studied as European and world literature on all continents, from Australia, Japan and the USA to European metropolises. Already read in more than 50 languages of the world, this work is considered a contemporary world literary phenomenon in literature and has won the most important national and international literary awards in France, Great Britain, Spain and Italy, Israel, South Korea ; and has been honored with gratitude and honorary titles (doctor honoris causa) in almost all the countries of the Balkans”, says the Academy of Sciences. In European universities and on a wider scale, studies in cadreology have already been added to Albanianology as a separate branch, such as studies on Albanian literature, on Albanian identity and on the relationship between literature and powers. ASH states that his literary work, although with three complete editions in Tirana, two in France and one in Pristina, is republished every year in separate volumes and the author holds regular meetings with readers. “Ismail Kadare wrote a work with which he created a European Albania, more beautiful than what it was and what it is today; an aristocratic Albania, the most beautiful Albania compared to what is seen in the mirror of history and in any other mirror”, says ASH. Kadare has been decorated by the President of the Republic of Albania with the “Honour of the Nation” Order, by the French state with the “Cross of the Legion of Honor” and “Officer of the Legion of Honor” orders, and by the King of Spain with the “Prince of Asturias” award. Ismail Kadare was born on January 28, 1936 in the Palorto neighborhood of Gjirokastra.
