This is a love story, but only if you take everything you know about love stories and shelve it with books that you will never reread. The story of obsession that Kadare has written stretches over years, and twists love into something barely recognisable. It starts off with a car crash that leaves the lovers dead and the driver alive. When questioned about what happened, he is unable to say more than that he saw them in the mirror, trying to kiss. His explanation confuses the issue more than it clarifies, and so begins the investigation into the cause. It is the slow unfolding of the lovers' story through that investigation that makes up the body of the novel. The love they have for each other seems infected by the dark political background of the novel. The writing is superb and stayed with me for a long time after I finished.
Compelling and brilliant
frankie on Mon, 28/06/2010 - 23:07This is a love story, but only if you take everything you know about love stories and shelve it with books that you will never reread. The story of obsession that Kadare has written stretches over years, and twists love into something barely recognisable. It starts off with a car crash that leaves the lovers dead and the driver alive. When questioned about what happened, he is unable to say more than that he saw them in the mirror, trying to kiss. His explanation confuses the issue more than it clarifies, and so begins the investigation into the cause. It is the slow unfolding of the lovers' story through that investigation that makes up the body of the novel. The love they have for each other seems infected by the dark political background of the novel. The writing is superb and stayed with me for a long time after I finished.