Translated by Robert Elsie
by Yiannis Baboulias / June 16, 2016 / Leave a commentPublished in July 2016 issue of Prospect Magazine
Blendi Fevziu’s biography of Enver Hoxha, the Albanian ruler from 1941 to 1985, is the biggest-selling book in the history of the Balkan country. Remarkably little is known about the Le Monde-reading communist dictator who ruled with an “iron fist,” besides his cold-blooded temperament and cruelty.
The world view he imposed an entire country into isolation and reshaped it into a land in which “he was the sun.” Fevziu’s dispassionate approach—drawing on a large amount of archival material, correspondences and testimonies—paints a picture of a man plagued by feelings of inadequacy and paranoia.