The Siege

An epic novel of war from the Man Booker International Prize–winning Albanian author who “has been compared to Gogol, Kafka, and Orwell” (The Independent).

Ismail Kadare’s The Siege dramatizes a fictional fifth century assault by the Ottoman Army on a Christian fortress in the Albanian mountains. As the bloody and psychologically crushing struggle for control unfolds, Kadare’s narrative opens a window onto the eternal clash between religions and empires. His masterful prose brings to life the exhilaration, despair, and immediacy of the battlefield—as well as a dramatic view of those who command and those who fight and die.

Hailed by The New Yorker as “Albania’s most distinguished novelist,” Kadare is a hero to his countrymen, as well as an outspoken critic of all forms of totalitarianism. Here, with this epic novel, he proves himself “an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil” (The Independent).