The General of the Dead Army
SynopsisPlot
This is the story of an Italian general, accompanied by his chaplain, charged with the mission of scouring Albania in search of the bones of their fallen countrymen, killed twenty years earlier during World War II. Published January 25, 1991
Story
About this book
An unnamed Italian general travels to Albania with a military chaplain on an unusual assignment. Twenty years after World War II, they have been sent to locate and retrieve the remains of Italian soldiers killed during the occupation of Albania. The task is bureaucratic in origin but becomes something heavier as the two men move through a country that remembers the war differently than they do.
The general carries lists, maps, and identification records. He and the chaplain dig in muddy fields, visit remote villages, and rely on local workers to help unearth scattered graves. As the search continues, the landscape and the people they encounter press against the official purpose of the mission. Conversations with Albanian villagers surface memories and tensions that complicate the seemingly straightforward work of collecting bones. Rain and difficult terrain slow the effort further, and the general's composure begins to erode.
Ismail Kadare published the novel in Albanian in the 1960s, and it became one of his most widely known works abroad. By 2018 it ranked among the most translated books worldwide. The story uses the recovery mission as a frame for examining how war lingers in both the occupier and the occupied long after fighting ends.
