The Fall of the Stone City
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15
Ratings2
Average rating2
Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013. In September 1943, Nazi troops advance on the ancient gates of Gjirokastr, Albania. The very next day, the Germans vanish without a trace. As the townsfolk wonder if they might have dreamt the events of the previous night, rumours circulate of a childhood friendship between a local dignitary and the invading Nazi Colonel, a reunion in the town square and a fateful dinner party that would transform twentieth-century Europe. A captivating novel of resistance in a dictatorship, and steeped in Albanian folklore, The Fall of the Stone City shows Kadare at the height of his powers.
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At times impervious and meandering, the second half of the story makes up for the first by accelerating its pace and improving the flow of the plot. There was a lot of head-scratching going on in the first 30 pages or so as I tried to connect the obscure details together, wondering just exactly how much of this had any point.
Unfortunately, the ending exposed very little of what I actually wanted to know, despite the neat closure of the main narrative. The whole book rests on a framework of interesting cultural set-pieces and backdrops and an intelligent account of the historical events occuring at the time, as well as an honestly interesting cast.
The finished product, however, simply didn't do justice to the elements that had propped it up.
