A Dictator Calls

In 1960, during the final days of Boris Pasternak’s life, Ismail Kadare was in Moscow, where the scandal surrounding the 1958 Nobel Prize awarded to the author of *Doctor Zhivago* had not yet subsided. This circumstance—along with the bond of belonging to the same "family of writers," the fact that both had been considered for the Nobel (with all the implications that held for an author from a socialist country), and, above all, the fact that both had received a phone call from their country’s bloodthirsty dictator—prompted Kadare to reconstruct the story of Stalin’s terrifying call to Pasternak.

It is said that in June 1934, Joseph Stalin himself telephoned the famous poet—and future novelist—Boris Pasternak to ask his opinion on the arrest of the poet Osip Mandelstam. Pasternak’s response was apparently rather non-committal, earning him a reprimand from Stalin. The words exchanged and the tone of the call became legendary within Soviet cultural circles, and, as often happens in such cases, numerous versions of the event exist.

Through a fascinating blend of dreamlike moments and research into reliable sources, Ismail Kadare reconstructs the three-minute call between dictator and poet, as well as the seismic shifts this tense, mysterious moment caused in Pasternak’s life and the world of Soviet culture. Weaving together his great narrative skill and inventiveness with actual accounts from figures connected to Pasternak and Mandelstam—writers such as Isaiah Berlin and Anna Akhmatova, as well as journalists, intellectuals, and other witnesses—Kadare creates a compelling novel that illuminates the relationship between art and power, depicting a writer who, by definition, ought to be free, yet is forced to contend with politics and—worse still—a bloodthirsty tyrant.

Please note this copy is in near new condition with light scuffs on edges of dust jacket.

ISBN: 9781787303638

Size: Hardcover, 240 pages

Publisher:Harvill Secker

Published:2023