Literary prize winner will grace capital

Published on Thursday 16 June 2005 01:54

TEN days from now a little-known Albanian author hailed as a literary genius is to come to Edinburgh to be awarded a £60,000 prize for a lifetime of writing.

However, publishers yesterday were in a frantic race to get any of his works into the city's bookshops after a casual inquiry by The Scotsman revealed that none were on sale.

The situation proved to be barely better in Glasgow, where just two copies of Ismail Kadare's novel Broken April were available in city-centre branches of Waterstone's.

Readers ready to turn to Edinburgh's City Libraries could chose from 14 editions of his books - but most are on loan.

Earlier this month Kadare, 69, was chosen as the first winner of the new Man Booker International Prize for Literature.

The prize will be awarded to the author in Edinburgh on 27 June, in recognition of the city's status as the UNESCO City of Literature.

Judges picked him over a list of famous names that ranged from Edinburgh's own Muriel Spark to Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Germany's Gnter Grass.

Kadare's books range from blood feuds to deadly political intrigue. Broken April is the story of an endless cycle of revenge set in the Albanian mountains.

He has been mentioned as a Nobel Prize contender, hailed by literary fans and invited in the past to the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

But sales of his novels, translated from French and Albanian, have languished in Britain.

The news of his prize has brought a sprint to get them back in print - and back to Edinburgh - with all the drama of a Beaujolais Nouveau race.

Ottakar's in Edinburgh said yesterday that they had no books by Kadare in stock and the story was the same at Waterstone's in Edinburgh, at Borders in Glasgow and Blackwell's in Edinburgh.

Most said they had placed orders for his work.

Every shop assistant reached yesterday had to ask how to spell his name, and most said they did not normally stock his books.

A spokesman for the Man Booker International Prize pledged yesterday: "Before the end of this month, the majority of his work will be back on the shelves.

"The publishers are aiming to get them out before the 27th. Part of the goal has been to bring writers like Kadare back into profile."

A spokesman for Kadare's publisher, Vintage, said two novels were already available and others were coming out "day by day as we speak".

"Hopefully on the night of the prize we should have copies of all the books in bookshops," the spokesman promised.

The manager of Ottakar's in Edinburgh's George Street, Matthew Perren, was not waiting on that pledge yesterday; he has ordered three copies of Kadare's works from a second-hand book shop in Cardiff.

Because Kadare's books have not sold many copies, Mr Perren said, book chains did not stock them and publishers printed only a few.

"We had the odd one or two, they sold out very quickly, and now everything has gone into reprint. I think it took everyone by surprise.

"Interesting books just drift out of print because people don't buy them any more. Writers of this quality end up not being stocked or in print."