The Siege

by David Bellos (Translator), David Bellos (Translator), Ismail Kadare (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $3.29

  The Ottoman Army - the most powerful the world had known by that time - lays siege to a Christian fortress in the mountains of Albania. Above the colourful host looms the great dark wall of the citadel that has to be overcome.Told partly through the personal narrative of one of the defenders, partly through the eyes of the Ottoman chronicler Mevla Celebi, Ismail Kadare's The Siege is a gripping narrative of a bloody, complex struggle that ends in defeat and desolation for both sides.Its story of blood, gore and boiling pitch provides Ismail Kadare with another vehicle for his long meditation on human relations, human folly, the ambiguities of power and the meaning of history. The thoughts and sufferings of his fifteenth-century warriors are barely distinguishable from those that afflict us in the modern world.

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.80

  In the early fifteenth century, as winter falls away, the people of Albania know that their fate is sealed. They have refused to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire, and war is now inevitable. Soon enough dust kicked up by Turkish horses is spotted from a citadel. Brightly coloured banners, hastily constructed minarets and tens of thousands of men fill the plain below. From this moment on, the world is waiting to hear that the fortress has fallen. The Siege tells the enthralling story of the weeks and months that follow - of the exhilaration and despair of the battlefield, the constantly shifting strategies of war, and those whose lives are held in balance, from the Pasha himself to the technicians, artillerymen, astrologer, blind poet and harem of women that accompany him. Brilliantly vivid, as insightful as it is compelling, The Siege is an unforgettable account of the clash of two great civilisations. As a portrait of war, it resonates across the centuries and confirms Ismail Kadare as one of our most significant writers.