The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother

In this autobiographical novel, Albania’s most renowned novelist and poet Ismail Kadare explores his relationship with his mother in a delicately wrought tale of home, family, creative aspirations, and personal and political freedom.

“Houses like ours seemed constructed with the specific purpose of preserving coldness and misunderstanding for as long as possible.”

In his father’s great stone house with hidden rooms and even a dungeon, Ismail grows up with his mother at the center of his unive...