Elegy for Kosovo: Stories

by Ismail Kadare

Book Overview

28 June 1389, the Field of the Blackbirds. A Christian army made up of Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians and Romanians confront an Ottoman army. In ten hours the battle is over, and the Muslims possess the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559705280
• ISBN13: 9781559705288
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 121 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Polemic at its best

I often hear "polemic" applied to fiction as if it were always a weakness. In the hands of a storytelling master like Kadare, polemic becomes a strength of the novel. He uses a fiction reflecting on the battle for Kosovo with the multiplicity of Balkan nationalities semi-united against the unified Ottomans. He illustrates the Balkan divisions in the different instruments their singers (bards) use and in the repetition of old songs as a way of continually reminding the listeners of old animosities and injuries. I was reminded of an anthropolical paper many years back which explored how parents kept hatreds alive in Cyprus long past the normal period of cultural forgetting. Kadare shows what the academic paper tells. And through this showing, Kadare shows us something of human nature that extends far beyond the specific situation in the Balkans. While this and several other books of Kadare are political protest, Kadare always lets the story and the poetry shine. Think of him, perhaps, as a very literary George Orwell Animal Farm (Signet Classics), William Golding Lord of the Flies : (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) or Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451.

Trying to Understand Ethnic Hatred

While I took Western Civilization in college many years ago, the amazing professor Thacker managed to comment on the current situation in Kosovo circa 1998. Some kid had asked about what the Serbs and the Albanians were fighting over. His response was, "they just hate each-other and they have been hating since the beginning of time." Dr. Thacker wasn't very far off the mark. And in "Elegy for Kosovo", world-renown novelist Ismail Kadare has attempted to deliver a big message through the use of a parable-legend. The message that blind hatred continues to spawn between the Albanians and the Serbs in the region for over a millennium. Yet, these very people fail to grasp why they hate each other so much. Milosevic tried to evoke the battle between the Ottomans and the Balkan coalition as a tool to pursue his agenda of ethnic cleansing in the region. That's what sparked the attention of Kadare to the issue, who based on some historical research, and on the epic legends that get carried on from generation to generation wrote this nice account of the battle. As a matter of fact in that part of the world history and legends run hand in hand. The book is short, and having read many volumes of Kadare, I was a little disappointed. However, the story is right on target. It is absurd to use a battle that happened over 600 years ago, as a tool to annihilate an entire ethnic group. The style of narrative is pure, and makes it an easy one-afternoon-read. I would highly recommend this book to whoever is interested on the Balkan conflict, as a mean to sort through some of the cloudy logic surrounding this matter.

600 Years Ago: the Battle in Kosovo ...

is told from the viewpoint of eyewitnesses. Although it is fiction: the message is clear, strong & real there are "rumors of impending war", "rumors of peace", "newly sealed alliances" so the story begins. Kadare's use of natural imagery and poetical lyrical language is unsurpassed. You understand how the anxiety of the mountain people adds to the tensions as political alliances are created, ancient memories of past battles won and lost are discussed while musicians strum on the gusle & bards sing about the past. The Turks, Serbs & Bulgarians (Byzantine empire) and other kingdoms once existed in cohesion ... but now with rumours & past memories inflaming emotions. the inevitable occurs. This is one *great* epic story told in about 120 pages!!!! Amazing detail making one feel as if present on the battlefield itself! Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Vintage Kadare

I am a fan of Kadare's and recomend all his books, this one in particular. What beautiful language and powerful image. This is also one of the few books of his that was translated directly from the Albanian, and not from the French, which is important too. We see Kosovo from a completely different angle, as a Serb and an Albanian are thrown together by fate during a medieval battle. The book is full of superb surprises.