The best way to begin understanding another culture is to read its novels; a good novelist can humanize that which seems incomprehensible, even demonic, to the outsider.
While in Albania recently I picked up the novel “Chronicle in Stone” by the country’s Communist-era writer Ismail Kadare. It is a beautifully written tale about social transition in a former pariah state as seen through the eyes of a young boy. Two thumbs up!
Posted by pikkert 