The work "Chronicle in stone" by the great writer Ismail Kadare was recently published in Polish, translated by Marek Jeziorski. "The hero of the novel 'Chronicle in stone' by Ismail Kadare, one of the most prominent contemporary Albanian writers, is the stone city of Gjirokastra, where the writer spent his youth. The author portrays the personified beauty and drama of life in Gjirokastra. The events described in the book take place during the Second World War in the years 1940–1943, in the city successively occupied by Italian, Greek and German troops. The story of a stone city and its inhabitants, seen through the eyes of a young boy, the author's alter ego, is far from a classic autobiographical memoir," reads the introduction to the Polish edition of the novel. There, other details of the story are also given, while Kadare is described as a "master of the grotesque and subtle mystery".
"The boy tries to understand the city full of mysteries, constantly talking to it. The language of the city is its sounds and colors. Kadare is a master of the grotesque and subtle mystery, constantly using the poetic power of metaphor and vague allusion. A sensitive reader of the book, which seems to have little connection with Hoxha's time of terror (the book was published in 1971), will be able to spot critical references to the dictatorship that destroys freedom and human dignity between the lines of the story." highlighted in the book's introduction.
Further in the introduction, it is said that "Chronicle in Stone" is an example of how outstanding literature can overcome the restrictions of the communist state's censorship, without losing its artistic value and without running away from difficult topics that concern ordinary people at key moments. of their lives.
According to the publisher, the novel was translated directly from Albanian - unlike some of Kadare's books that have been published in Polish with translation from French - which made the translator's task even more demanding, because the author shows exceptional word-forming skills and boldly draws from wealth of the mother tongue.
Thanks to the initiative of the translator, Marek Jeziorski, an excellent connoisseur of the Albanian culture and language, this poetic novel, setting in motion the unlimited imagination of the reader, in the presentation of incomprehensible and mysterious issues, will be read from now on by many current lovers and new works of the Albanian author. Until now, Kadare's works have been translated into about 45 languages of the world. Kadare has been decorated by the President of the Republic of Albania with the "Honour of the Nation" order, as well as by the French state with the "Cross of the Legion of Honor" and "Officer of the Legion of Honor" orders.
