The Fall of the Stone City

<p><b>Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013.</b> <p>In September 1943, Nazi troops advance on the ancient gates of Gjirokaster, Albania. The very next day, the Germans vanish without a trace. As the townsfolk wonder if they might have dreamt the events of the previous night, rumours circulate of a childhood friendship between a local dignitary and the invading Nazi Colonel, a reunion in the town square and a fateful dinner party that would transform twentieth-century Europe. <p> A captivating novel of resistance in a dictatorship, and steeped in Albanian folklore, <i>The Fall of the Stone City</i> shows Kadare at the height of his powers.</p>