The Siege

By Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare’s The Siege dramatizes a relentless fictional assault on a Christian fortress in the Albanian mountains by the Ottoman Army in the fifteenth century. As the bloody and psychologically crushing struggle for control over the citadel unfolds, Kadare’s newest work opens a window onto the eternal clash between religions and empires as well as the exhilaration, despair, and immediacy of the battlefield.
Kadare is a hugely respected novelist and a hero to his people, as well as an outspoken critic of all forms of totalitarianism. The Siege is a powerfully atmospheric . . . and vividly rendered” (The Telegraph) novel of considerable cumulative power and resonance for our own times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Release date: Jul 13, 2010
• ISBN: 9780802196972

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.

[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.

[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.