The File on H (1981)
by
Two Irish-American Harvard scholars travel to Albania to study the oral epic in the 1930s. (H stands for Homer.) The local authorities, however, become convinced they are spies while the local mayor’s bored wife is equally convinced they represent deliverance. This was the first Kadare novel I ever read and, as with others of his novels, translated into English from a French translation of the original Albanian. But its clear confident voice and masterful satire instantly rendered me a fan.
