Novel
Lumi i vdekur
Not translated into English
Jakov Xoxa · 1965
Synopsis
In Albania before the Second World War, the novel interweaves the love of Vita and Adil with the misfortunes of three families brought together in the small town of Trokth. It opens with the expulsion of the Shpiragaj family, who take to the road with their caravan like other peasants of the Myzeqe; the peasant Pilo waits in an inn while his wife lies dying, and the floods of the Vjosa and the Seman set the rhythm of the story, in a world of injustice and poverty.
Context
Written in 1964, the novel appeared in 1965 from Naim Frashëri, in 320 pages, then in 1967 in a revised version of 663 pages; it precedes Juga e bardhë, published in 1971. Built on the model of Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows the Don, it is among the few Albanian socialist-realist novels whose literary value critics acknowledge, through a language rich in images, personifications and irony. It has been translated into neither French nor English.
Who it is for
To discover the Albanian countryside before the war in a great peasant fresco teeming with characters.
Prizes and reception
Ardian Klosi and Rozeta Uçi see Xoxa as a poet of prose, as this novel, among the best known of his work, shows.