[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 14, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E480-E481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PAYING TRIBUTE TO ISMAIL KADARE, ALBANIAN POLITICAL EXILE FROM FRANCE 
               AND WINNER OF THE JERUSALEM PRIZE FOR 2015

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 14, 2015

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Ismail Kadare, 
the Albanian political exile from France, distinguished Albanian author 
and winner of the Jerusalem Prize for 2015. Kadare is a novelist and 
poet who has written about Albanian history people and while delving 
deeply into the universal themes of freedom and human rights. He is one 
of Albania's most highly-regarded authors, having written about its 
previous totalitarian regime and Albanian culture and society. 
According to the panel that selected him as the Jerusalem Prize winner, 
Mr. Kadare ``is a teller of fascinating stories who uses implied, 
indirect writing. He writes about collective guilt, and especially 
about the truth's failure to penetrate. He seeks to expose, while 
hiding his tracks in layers of myth and metaphor, questions for which 
there are no answers and crimes for which there is no atonement. Even 
though his subject matter and his protagonists are generally local, 
their significance and importance are beyond doubt universal.''
  Mr. Kadare's literary career is marked by several laudable 
achievements, such as the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of 
France lifetime membership, Prix mondial Cino Del Duca award in 1992, 
the United Kingdom's Man Booker International award in 2005, and both 
the Prince Asturias Award for Literature and the Honorary Degree of 
Science in Social and Institutional Communication by the University of 
Palermo in Sicily in 2009. As a testament to the universal acceptance 
of his literature, Mr. Kadare's novels have also been translated into 
many different languages which now reach broad audiences across the 
globe. Such accolades and recognition only scratch the surface of Mr. 
Kadare's admirable commitment to exercising the sacred values of 
democracy regardless of the circumstances he faces.

[[Page E481]]

  Throughout his literary novels, Mr. Kadare carefully selects 
figurative protagonists and narratives as a vehicle for communicating 
and inspiring others similarly bounded by the pressures of oppressive 
regimes. In doing so, Mr. Kadare's commitment to transcending 
governmental pressure and inspiring harmonious expression of individual 
freedoms is admirable. Again, I would like to extend my heartfelt 
congratulations to Ismail Kadare for I am pleased to pay tribute to 
such an individual today.

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