The Siege

By Ismail Kadare

From Ismail Kadare, winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize – a novelist in the class of Coetzee, Pamuk, Márquez, and Rushdie – the stunning new translation of one of his major works.

In the early fifteenth century, as winter falls away, the people of Albania know that their fate is sealed. They have refused to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire, and war is now inevitable. Soon enough, dust kicked up by Turkish horses is spotted from a citadel. Brightly coloured banners, hastily constructed minarets, and tens of thousands of men fill the plain below. From this moment on, the world is waiting to hear that the fortress has fallen.

The Siege tells the enthralling story of the weeks and months that follow – of the exhilaration and despair of the battlefield, the constantly shifting strategies of war, and those whose lives are held in the balance, from the Pasha himself to the artillerymen, astrologer, blind poet, and harem of women who accompany him.

"Believe me," the general said. "I’ve taken part in many sieges but this," he waved towards the castle walls, "is where the most fearful carnage of our times will take place. And you surely know as well as I do that great massacres always give birth to great books. You really do have an opportunity to write a thundering chronicle redolent with pitch and blood, and it will be utterly different from the graceful whines composed at the fireside by squealers who never went to war."

Brilliantly vivid, as insightful as it is compelling, The Siege is an unforgettable account of the clash of two great civilisations, and a portrait of war that will resonate across the centuries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307373779

Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare is Albania’s best known novelist, whose name is mentioned annually in discussions of the Nobel Prize. He won the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005; in 2009 he received the Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras, Spain’s most prestigious literary award, and in 2015 he won the Jerusalem Prize. In 2016 he was named a Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur. James Wood has written of his work, "Kadare is inevitably likened to Orwell and Kundera, but he is a far deeper ironist than the first, and a better storyteller than the second. He is a compellingly ironic storyteller because he so brilliantly summons details that explode with symbolic reality." His last book to be published in English, The Traitor’s Niche, was nominated for the Man Booker International.

Reviews for The Siege

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ismail Kadare's 'The Siege', first written in Albania in 1969ish under the Enver Hoxha dictatorship and later revised in France in the 1990s, is an incredible work of fiction that blurs the lines between reality and the imagination. An Albanian citadel is under siege, the Turkish forces throwing everything they have at the walls surrounding the city within. Will the aggressors succeed? And what will it mean if they do not? Brilliant, from start to finish.

[bayardus-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this one and The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell within a short time frame, and they complement each other well. There the focus is on the besieged, here the focus is on those besieging. There the subject is tackled focusing on the material experience, here more symbolic and historical/spiritual lenses are used. I highly recommend reading the two together to see how two authors tackle the same subject in vastly different ways.

If you can only read one, though, this is the better of the two. Kadare is always a fine stylist of prose, and the vivid depictions of the siege from both perspectives is some good work. Also, the historical import and the message he hints at in the symbols of his book mean that this is more than just a siege story. It's an age in a nutshell. Not my favorite Kadare, but a solid book.

[ameise1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is an excellent story about a siege taking place in Albania in the 15s century. It's a war between Christians who were living in the castle and Muslims who tried to capture the castle. The most part of the story is from the view of the aggressors. In each chapter the focus was laid-out on a special group of them. The main characters are crossing their paths in each chapter, whereas other figures have got only an individually appearance. The view of the attacked ones is kept very short and always in front of a new chapter. The outcome of this war was surprisingly and is mainly based on natural forces.

[thewasp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tens of thousands of men willing to die capturing an Albanian fortress. It is a dirty war. Ismail Kadare takes you inside that army, describing their heirarchy, tactics, showing their frailities & fears. He describes the logistics of housing and feeding such masses and it is all done with such wonderful writing that you are part of that army until the last page.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well written historical novel set at a time when the author's homeland Albania was under attack from the Ottoman Empire. Because of this backdrop, he was able to get it published in his home country in 1969, though it contains subversive messages about the nature of an arbitrary and authoritarian political system. I must say I found much of it rather unengaging and a little flat, though perhaps in part that may be down to the double translation into French then English.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fictionalized account of an attack of the Ottoman Empire upon the Albanians. The book is written in such a manner that the chapters are mostly from the Ottoman perspective, but at the close of every chapter are two italicized pages from the Albanian perspective. These Albanian pages are almost poetic because they are so beautifully written and translated. I'm not particularly fond of war stories, but this one was extremely well-written.

[fence_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sometime in the fifteenth century, an unnamed Albanian citadel is under siege by the Ottoman army. Among the besiegers is Mevla Celebi, the chronicler or historian. He will record the events for posterity. His job is to compose the story of the Ottoman’s campaign. He is the reader’s main viewpoint, among others, including two or three pages in between in each chapter from the point of view of the Albanians besieged in their castle.

And I have to say, that from the start I was not all that taken with the invading captain. His treatment of his wives did not endear him to me. Nor did any subsequent action, thought, or deed, that we see from him.

In fact none of the characters were all that relatable.

But in reading this book you need to be aware of the situation in which is was written. Albania in the 1970s, under the threat of the USSR, and under paranoia and tyrannical rule from within. It had a siege mentality all of its own.

And writing at the time Kadare was probably sensible to write of the brave Albanians in defence of their homeland, even if the actions of the Ottoman general with his secret police and scapegoat-trials are more like what was actually going on.

It is an interesting read but I don’t think this is a book I particularly enjoyed. The political power struggle within the besieging army is really what is at the heart of the book, and there is a sort of depressing inevitable to it all that I found a little wearing. And yet I still read it all and had a lot of interest in it. I think that it would probably work better if I knew more about the history of Albania. Both the mythological withstanding-the-Muslim-invaders history and the 1960/70s secret police type history.

[colligan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well written and interesting but seemed to lack depth. Ending seemed too brief and left me feeling it needed more closure.

[lisamorr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed The Siege. This novel was about a Turkish siege of an unnamed Albanian citadel. It was told mainly from the point of view of the Turks - each chapter had a short (~page and a half) piece on what it was like for Albanians, but the bulk of the book told the story of the Turkish army laying siege. We hear from the commander-in-chief, his quartermaster general, the chronicler, the architect, the engineer, some of the soldiers, even some of the wives that the commander-in-chief brought along. I'm not exactly into war books, but I really liked the descriptions of the different military units and how the siege was executed. I may need to expand my reading horizons into this area!