Albania

The Three-Arched Bridge, Ismail Kadare
Ura me tri harqe

A summer holiday in enigmatic Albania some years ago prompted the purchase of this book by Ismail Kadare, the leading literary figure of the country. Living and writing through the extreme and autocratic dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, he evaded politics (and scrutiny) by cloaking much of his fiction in history and folklore.

Very much in this vein, The Three-Arched Bridge is set in 1377 and is based on a traditional Albanian legend. The story centres on a mysterious group of builders who arrive to construct a bridge over a raging river in the remote mountains of the country. This leads to conflict with local officials and with river boatmen who squabble incessantly with each other and with the builders about the bridge, oblivious to the crumbling Byzantine Empire around them and the march of the Ottomans into Europe.

The story can be read as a parable for the history of Albania, with three major ethnic groups, Muslims, Catholics, and Orthodox, living side by side. It can also be read as a moral commentary of the petty differences and disagreements between these groups having exposed the country exposed to vagaries of historical forces marching on the country from without. An interesting insight into quite an unknown country.

Russian Federation

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Один день Ивана Денисовича, Александр Солженицын

A book I read rather a while ago that depressed the shit out of me. It follows titular character Ivan Denisovich as he lives the Kafkaesque nightmare of one average day in a Soviet gulag in Siberia. 

Most strangely to me was that, at the end of the book, Ivan feels his day has been productive, even "almost happy". He "went to sleep fully content. He'd had many strokes of luck that day." It's a real testament to how people can overcome misery. Perhaps the book is meant to be a triumph of the will, but mostly I came away from reading this with a dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach about how people can be so cruel and malicious towards other human beings. – Not a easy beach read, to be sure.

I get the feeling that a lot of older Russian literature tends to be in this same vein of one person suffering through intolerable circumstances; think of Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, etc. I'd be quite interested to read something more contemporary to see if the literary undertones have changed with the times as Russia has changed. I see that Ann Morgan also read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich for her Russia selection, but she also lists many contemporary writers for me to check out in the future.