Chronique de la ville de pierre

Blurb

Chronicle in Stone is a novel by Ismail Kadare. First published in Albanian in 1971, and sixteen years later in English translation, it describes life in a small Albanian city during World War II.
Translated by Arshi Pipa, an Albanian émigré who lived in the United States, the book was initially published in English without the translator's name. Pipa had entered into a conflict with the publisher and/or with the author, and demanded to have his name taken off the translation. Pipa claimed that the several references to homosexuals, and homosexual activity throughout the novel were intended to raise the question of Enver Hoxha's own sexuality, a dangerous claim at the time.
The current edition was translated by David Bellos. He was chosen by Kadare, as he had received a Booker prize for translation work.
Each chapter is followed by an alternate chapter, a short "Fragment of a Chronicle" written by the town's official chronicler. The regular chapters are written in the first person, in the voice of a child, an alter ego of the young Kadare. He is fascinated with words, and reads Macbeth, as Kadare himself did when he was eleven.