Spring flowers, spring frost: a novel

Ismail Kadare

Arcade Publishing, 2002 - Fiction - 182 pages

In a small town at the foot of the northern highlands, life appears to go on as it always has, but people are in a state of shock. The robbery of a local bank is seen as a sign of modern times and of westernization in this backward Balkan land. At the same moment, the harsh blood-for-blood law of the mountain folk, the fearsome Kanun, like everything else forbidden under the fifty years of Communist rule, is emerging from hibernation.
Other strange things occur. Mysterious events that are two thousand years, two centuries, or even 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 recurring every few hundred years that is as much a part of the modern as of the ancient world.
In a desolate spot on the outskirts of the town, some people search for the entrance to a tunnel that is said to lead to the secret archives of the State. They're looking for evidence of their own crimes - or of hypothetical crimes they might have committed. People say that the ghostly likenesses of Hoxha, Brezhnev, Ulbricht, Thorez - and even Oedipus - have been seen lurking there.

What people are saying

Review: Spring Flowers, Spring Frost

User Review  - Becky - Goodreads

I really enjoyed Spring Flowers, Spring Frost, until the final chapter. Until then it was a great combination of a day to day love story, ancient mythology, and a brand new society trying to find it's ...

Review: Spring Flowers, Spring Frost

User Review  - Laura - Goodreads

I'll be honest, I don't really have a clue what was going on in this book! There are all manner of strange occurances, like snake husbands and visits from death and blood feuds, all of which make it sound better than it actually was. All a little bit too enigmatic for me.

Contents

• Section 1: 13
• Section 2: 59
• Section 3: 67
• Section 4: 85
• Section 5: 101
• Section 6: 107
• Section 7: 127
• Section 8: 141
• Section 9: 153
• Section 10: 155

About the author

Ismail Kadare is the most prominent of contemporary Albanian writers. He has written poetry, short stories, literary criticism, and seven novels. His works have been translated and published in more than two dozen countries. An internationally known figure, he has visited and lectured in many countries. He was also a representative to Albania's People's Assembly. In 1990 Kadare left Albania for Paris where he became openly dissident.

Bellos is professor of French at Princeton University, won the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie for his life of Georges Perec. He is also the award-winning translator of Perec's Life: A User's Manual and other novels.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Spring flowers, spring frost: a novel
• Author: Ismail Kadare
• Translated by: David Belos
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing, 2002
• ISBN: 155970635X, 9781559706353
• Length: 182 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Literary