Spring Flowers, Spring Frost : A Novel

With its rich and sombre story of local traditions and universal themes, Spring Flowers, Spring Frost is a masterpiece belonging to Ismail Kadare’s purest classical vein.The love story between a painter and a girl is set against the backdrop of a country in the midst of terrifying change as its inhabitants deal with the Westernization of a backward Balkan land, witness a series of strange events, and search for a tunnel to the Secret State Archives, which supposedly house records of crimes that may have been committed. Consisting of two separate, very unequal stories: the better by far is a folktale of enchantment and transformation — the story of a girl “punished” by being given in marriage to a snake — that resembles a story out of Arabian Nights and is as spare and haunting as anything Kadare has ever written."He has been compared to Gogol, Kafka and Orwell. But Kadare is an original voice, universal, yet deeply rooted in his own soul." - Independent On SundayIsmail Kadare, born in 1936 in Albania, is the country’s best-known poet and novelist. Since the appearance of The General of the Dead Army in 1965, Kadare has published scores of stories and novels that make up a panorama of Albanian history linked by constant meditation on the nature and human consequences of dictatorship. His works, particularly The Monster and The Palace of Dreams, brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities, and in 1990 he sought political asylum in France.

A New York Times Notable Book

A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year

In a small town at the foot of the northern highlands in Albania, a decade after the fall of the Communist regime, the harsh blood-for-blood law of the fearsome Kanun mountain folk is emerging from hibernation, like everything else that was forbidden under the fifty years of Communist rule. Mysterious happenings that are two thousand years old, two centuries old, or even just two years old reemerge in daily life. The marriage of a girl and a snake is not just a legend but a news item—a cyclical event that is as much part of the modern world as of the ancient one. Set against this Kafkaesque backdrop, a simple and sensual love story between a painter and a young woman stands out as light against dark.

With its rich and somber story of local traditions and universal themes, Spring Flowers, Spring Frost is a masterpiece belonging to Kadare’s purest classical vein.

In a small town at the foot of the northern highlands in Albania, a decade after the fall of the Communist regime, the harsh blood-for-blood law of the fearsome Kanun mountain folk is emerging from hibernation, like everything else that was forbidden under the fifty years of Communist rule. Mysterious happenings that are two thousand years old, two centuries old, or even just two years old reemerge in daily life. The marriage of a girl and a snake is not just a legend but a news item�a cyclical event that is as much part of the modern world as of the ancient one. Set against this Kafkaesque backdrop, a simple and sensual love story between a painter and a young woman stands out as light against dark.� With its rich and somber story of local traditions and universal themes, Spring Flowers, Spring Frost is a masterpiece belonging to Kadare�s purest classical vein. ** In a town at the foot of the northern Highlands, life goes on as always, but people are in a state of shock: a bank has been robbed, a sure sign of the Westernization of this backward Balkan land. Meanwhile, other strange events--such as the marriage of a girl and a snake--confirm that ancient legends still prevail. People are flocking from far and wide to search for a tunnel to the Secret State Archives, said to house records of crimes they may have committed. Some even claim the ghosts of former dictators Hoxha, Brezhnev, and Ulbricht -- not to mention Oedipus--have been seen there ... Against this backdrop, a simple and sensual love story between a painter and a girl stands out as light against dark As spring arrives in the Albanian mountain town of B, some strange things are emerging in the thaw. Bank robbers strike the National Bank. Old terrors are dredged up from the shipwreck of history. And ultra-explosive state secrets are threatening to flood the entire nation. Mark, an artist, finds the peaceful rhythms of his life turned upside down by ancient love and modern barbarism and by the particular brutality of a country surprised and divided by its new freedom