The Fall of the Stone City
*Starred Review* Traitor or hero? The people of Gjirokastër endlessly debate the role of Dr. Gurameto in hosting a regal dinner for the commander of the Nazi army invading their ancient Albanian city. Some regard the German-schooled gynecologist as a quisling who welcomed an enemy; others view him as a brave tactician who saved scores of hostages—including a notable Jew—from death camps. Kadare’s mesmerizing novel allows readers to see how conflicting rumors about the dinner complicate the competitive relationship between Dr. Gurameto—Big Dr. Gurameto—and his Italian-trained rival and doppelgänger, the little Dr. Gurameto, and then how these rumors acquire new virulence under the Communists who replace the Nazis as Albania’s rulers. Commissioned to investigate the matter, one Shaqo Mezini interrogates Big Dr. Gurameto with a zeal incubated in his own paranoid fantasies about international medical conspiracies against Stalin. The interrogation veers further into the surreal as doubts surface as to the identity of the mysterious German colonel Dr. Gurameto feted with champagne and Schubert. As memorable as Dostoyevsky’s Porfiry and Orwell’s O’Brien, Mezini ruthlessly tears an opening into Dr. Gurameto’s turbulent mind, loosing a flood of dark secrets rooted in childhood anxieties and sepulchral nightmares. A well-crafted translation of a European masterpiece. --Bryce Christensen