Fatos Lubonja

Fatos Lubonja (* 1951 in Tirana) is an Albanian writer and dissident.

Life

Fatos Lubonja is the son of Todi Lubonja, who was a close confidant of former dictator Enver Hoxha and until the beginning of the 1970s head of the Albanian television. As a result of political purges against " decadent Western influences " in the culture, which emulated at the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Todi Lubonja was imprisoned in 1973. Fatos, in Tirana studied physics at the time, was also arrested, as a diary with Hoxha - critical statements was found in his possession.

Fatos Lubonja was sentenced in 1974 to five years in prison. There he was accused of belonging to a pro-Soviet circle and his detention was extended by 20 years. After 13 years in labor camp he was transferred to solitary confinement, during which he - on cigarette paper - a novel and wrote with Bashkim Shehu, son of Mehmet Shehu, corresponded. The letters they hid in the back of a dictionary. His novel The Last Slaughter is a settlement with communism under Hoxha. After 19 years in prison Fatos Lubonja was released in 1991.

Today he is considered outspoken critic of the Albanian governments ( Sali Berisha in particular), the Albanian politics society in general as well as the world- famous writer Ismail Kadare. He is editor of the literary magazine Përpjekja ( " effort " ) in Tirana, where he still lives. He has published several novels and essays, and kept writing critical articles for newspapers. 2004 Fatos Lubonja was awarded the Herder Prize for Literature.

Works (selection)

• Në vitin e shtatëmbëdhjetë ( In the seventeenth year). 1994
• Ploja e mbrame ( The last devastation ). 1994
• Ridënimi ( Re- punishment ). 1996
• Trashëgimia kulturore e Shqipërisë në rrezik ( The Heritage of Albania in danger ). 1999
• Nëntëdhjeteshtata - Apokalipsi i rremë ( The seventy-ninth - The wrong Apocalypse ). 2010 ISBN. 978-99956-037-3-1.

Awards

• 2002: Alberto Moravia Prize -
• 2004: Herder Prize for Literature