Albania’s world-renowned novelist Ismail Kadare dies at 88

Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Renowned Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare has died after being rushed to a hospital in Tirana. He was 88. His Onufri Publishing House editor Bujar Hudhri said Kadare died Monday morning. A nurse at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the press, said the author had been taken to the emergency room after suffering a cardiac arrest. Kadare has long been mentioned as a possible contender for the Nobel Literature Prize. Kadare became internationally recognized after his novel “The General of the Dead Army” was published in 1963 when Albania was still governed by the communist government of late dictator Enver Hoxha.