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Ismail Kadare, who was rewarded the Man Booker __1__ international Prize for literature this year, is the first Alabanian writer to be taken notice in nearly 80 years. His classic novel, __2__ The General of the Dead Army, is a meditation on the consequences of war, a hugely moved account of the meaning of duty and the __3__ tragedy that blind obedience entails.It is early 1960s, nearly 20 years as the Second World War __4__ ended. An Italian General, accompanied with a sinister priest __5__ who is also Italian army colonel, is sent to Alabania to locate __6__ and collect the bones of his countrymen who had died during the War and return them for burial in their native land. They are armed with maps, lists, and other important informations such as __7__ measurements, dental and other records of the missing personnel.The team tours the countryside, organizing digs and disinterment and, as they try to find the dead sons of forgotten families, they wonder at the sense and scale of their task. The General constantly talks to the priest who is accompanying them the futility of __8__ war and the sheer meaningless of the whole enterprise. As they go deeper into the Alabanian countryside they find their footsteps follow, sometimes anticipated, by a fellow General __9__ who is also looking for bodies—the bodies of German countrymen.Like this Italian counterpart, the German too struggles in the remote countryside, against the cold and rain and the hostile terrain. It is a thankless job looking for the remains of dead “souls” merely to take them back home for a decent burial. Is it worthy the exercise? Isn’t __10__ this a mistaken sense of national honor?
