Fatos Kongoli The lost
Fatos Kongoli I humburi
Fatos Kongoli was born on January 12, 1944 in Elbasan, is an Albanian writer and mathematician. Kongoli studied mathematics, partly in Beijing, partly in Tirana, where he graduated in 1967. He worked for a long time as a literary journalist and editor at the “Naim Frashëri” Publishing House. He is the author of a number of books. Congolese books have been published in several parts of the world. He is a three-time winner of the annual award for the best book in prose given by the Ministry of Culture (1995, 2000, 2002), as well as the Velia award (2000). He is the winner of the international award “Balkanika”. He is also the winner of the highest literary award in Albania “Golden Pen” (2004). The Albanian Publishers Association has awarded him the “Writer of the Year” award for 2006, while the novel “Dog Skin”, translated into German, was announced the book of June 2006 in Germany.
The novel opens with the description of the flight of thousands of Albanians, in March 1991, from Albania. Escape not so much from the danger of police persecution, because the totalitarian regime was collapsing, but from the place where the consequences of the rule of this regime were stratified. Escape from traces and signs that could recall the horror of totalitarian rule towards an imaginary world of abundance and happiness.
In this novel, words that would directly suggest the political context or the nature of the political regime within which the characters lead their lives are quite rare. The author manages to highlight, with literary means, what distinguishes the world of his characters. One of these tools has to do with the various animal figures and their connections to the death forms unfolding in this novel.
