The Pyramid by Ismail Kadare - ISBN: 9780099560920
Paperback
To control a nation, build a colossal pyramid, even of death.

$23.48

  • Paperback

    128 pages

  • Release Date

    1 November 2013

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Summary

Kadare’s classic parable of life under a communist dictatorship

When the new Egyptian Pharaoh decrees that he does not want a pyramid built in his honour his advisers are aghast. It is their firm belief that peace and prosperity only make the people more difficult to control - they must be kept under the whip. So the Pharaoh agrees to the construction of a pyramid colossal beyond imagining, an edifice that crushes dozens of people as each block is added and which inexorably drains the…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780099560920
ISBN-10:0099560925
Author:Ismail Kadare, Barbara Bray
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Imprint:Vintage Classics
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:128
Release Date:1 November 2013
Weight:98g
Dimensions:198mm x 130mm x 10mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

[Kadare] chronicled the dark years of dictatorship in masterpieces such as The Pyramid

[Kadare] chronicled the dark years of dictatorship in masterpieces such as The Pyramid * Independent *
A haunting sense of time moving backwards and forwards like a train at a terminus, an authentic sense of adventure, and an extraordinary facility with metaphor take over… Kadare’s new novel is mesmerising. * Sydney Morning Herald *
A vast, deep, obsessive parable. Like every parable, its fundamental significance transcends its apparent meaning * Figaro *
A masterpiece… A hauntingly beautiful parable woven from the fabric of history yet timeless in its reach * San Francisco Chronicle Book Review *
In the end, this book - which does not have (or need) a conventional plot, protagonist or conflict - adds up to a haunting meditation on the matter-of-fact brutality of political despotism, the harshness of life among the humble and powerless, and the vastness, ubiquity and stonelike permanence of death, which treats all humanity as equals. * New York Times *
He has been compared to Gogol, Kafka and Orwell. But Kadare’s is an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil * Independent on Sunday *

About The Author

Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare (1936-2024) is Albania’s best-known novelist and poet. Translations of his novels have appeared in more than forty countries. He was awarded the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005, the Jerusalem Prize in 2015, the Park Kyong-ni Prize in 2019 and the Neustadt Prize in 2020.

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