Prominent Albanian writer celebrates his 85th birthday

The prominent Albanian writer, Ismail Kadare celebrates his 85th birthday today. Ismail Kadare was born in Gjirokastër, an historic Ottoman city of tall stone houses in southern Albania near the border with Greece, to Halit Kadare, a post office employee, and Hatixhe Dobi, a homemaker, and lived there on a narrow street known as "Lunatics' Lane. He was born into a Muslim and bourgeois family. Kadare himself is an atheist. He has been a resident of France since the early 1990s. Kadare is one of the greatest writers of Albanian literature and also one of the greatest writers of contemporary world literature. With his work, which has recorded a record number of translations (in over 45 foreign languages) he has made Albania known to the world, with its centuries-old history and culture. He started the path of literary creativity as a poet in the years of high school Inspirational boyhood, 1954, "Dreams", (1957), but became famous especially with the volume My Century (1961), which was followed by other poetic volumes, such as : Why think of these mountains (1964), Sunny Motifs (1968) and Time (1976). Ismail Kadare's poetic work is known for its deep ideas and rich and original figuration; important role for the enrichment of Albanian poetry.