Jump to content

The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by GrahamHardy (talk | contribs) at 23:26, 20 June 2020 (publisher). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

First edition (publ. Onufri)

The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother (Albanian: Kukulla) is an autobiographical novel sketching author Ismail Kadare's relationship with his mother.[1] It dwells upon the family's life in Gjirokastër and later in Tirana, "full of compelling details of life in a changing Albania",[2] as well as on the author's own time as a student at the Gorky Institute in Moscow.[3] While the portrait of his mother remains insubstantial, there are reflections upon the author's own youthful literary ambitions,[4] and the nature of autocracy.[5]

The work was first published in Albanian in 2015, and was translated into English by John Hodgson for publication by Harvill Secker in 2020.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Nilanjana Roy (17 January 2020). "The Doll by Ismail Kadare: A mesmerising autobiographical novel". The Financial Times.
  2. ^ John Burnside (9 January 2020). "The Doll by Ismail Kadare Review: a fascinating study of difficult love". The Guardian.
  3. ^ Leo Robson (1 March 2020). "The Doll by Ismail Kadare. Review: A slippery study of maternal obsession". The Daily Telegraph.
  4. ^ Kevin Brazil (20 March 2020). "Childish Things: The narcissism of being a son". The Times Literary Supplement.
  5. ^ Boyd Tonkin (1 February 2020). "Albanian literary icon Ismail Kadare revisits 'home'". The Spectator.