Chronicle in Stone
 |
|
| Author | Ismail Kadare |
|---|---|
| Original title | Kronikë në gur |
| Translator | David Bellos |
| Country |
 Albania
|
| Language | Albanian |
| Subject | World War II |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher |
Canongate Sh.B. Onufri |
|
Publication date
|
1971 1987 |
|
Published in English
|
1987 |
| Pages | 280 318 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 44885471 |
Chronicle in Stone (Albanian: 'Kronikë në gur') is a novel by Ismail Kadare. First published in Albanian in 1971, and sixteen years later in English translation, it describes life in a small Albanian city during World War II.
Translated by Arshi Pipa, an Albanian émigré who lived in the United States, the book was initially published in English without the translator's name. Pipa had entered into a conflict with the publisher and/or with the author, and demanded to have his name taken off the translation. Pipa claimed that the several references to homosexuals, and homosexual activity throughout the novel (such as the bi-sexual Argjir Argjiri and the "woman with a beard," which Pipa takes to mean lesbian) were intended to raise the question of Enver Hoxha's own sexuality, a dangerous claim at the time.
The current edition was translated by David Bellos. He was chosen by Kadare, as he had received a Booker prize for translation work.
Each chapter is followed by an alternate chapter, a short "Fragment of a Chronicle" written by the town's official chronicler. The regular chapters are written in the first person, in the voice of a child, an alter ego of the young Kadare. He is fascinated with words, and reads Macbeth, as Kadare himself did when he was eleven. He applies human drama, imagining blood and crime everywhere. In Kadare's home town, ravaged by history, we see characters walking down the street with severed heads under their arms; the Italian fascists hang several young Albanian rebels, the Greek occupants kill "enemies" chosen according to the whims of their spies, and the Germans indulge in the killing of hundred-year-old women.
Toward the end of the novel, the absurdity of the political situation culminates in a whirlwind-like scenario, in which within two weeks or so, the town changes hands several times: from the Italians to the Greeks, back to the Italians, back to the Greeks, the Italians, the Greeks, until finally no one is in control. Each time the Italians come, they bring along two groups of women, one of nuns and one of prostitutes. Each time the town changes hands, another proclamation by another garrison commander is posted and another flag is raised. Each time another flag is raised, the Albanian Gjergj Pula changes his name to Giorgio (when the Italians come), to Yiorgos (for the Greeks) and to Jurgen Pulen with the arrival of the Germans, a name he never gets a chance to use because the Germans kill him as soon as they enter the town, nor does he get to use "Yogura," which he prepared in case of a Japanese invasion.
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