The File on H by Ismail Kadare

From Italy we pop over the Adriatic, to Albania for Ismail Kadare's The File on H.

Kadare is something of a giant in European literature, bursting onto the international scene with his first novel The General of the Dead Army. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature a whopping 15 times, but never won (always the bridesmaid...). He was even offered the presidency of a post-communist Albania in the 90s. (This seems to be a bit of a thing with Albanians; they offered the throne to CB Fry - British writer and jack-of-all-sports - various other British nobles and a clutch of Napoleon Bonaparte's family. What this says about Albania's view of themselves and the lands outside their borders is probably ripe for a thesis.) 

The File of H was written under communist censorship, which explains why its critique of the country is not explicit. Kadare instead uses satire to paint the state as ridiculous. The novel is nominally set in the interwar years, when Albania was a kingdom, but the veil is wafer-thin and there are so many cold war spy thriller tropes that it is clear (to everyone bar the censors, at least) that this is really about communist Albania.

The 'H' in question is Homer, and the novel loosely follows two Irishmen investigating the 'Homeric question' by delving into the epic poetry which still survives in modern Albania (or at least it does in The File on H). As they conduct their studies, they are followed by the state, who can not believe their motives are innocent. 

But really, the book (in my interpretation at least) is about identity. The Albanian characters are all very parochial, and very aware of it. They spend a lot of time concerned with how they appear to these foreigners, as well as watching them, and second-guessing their motives. It highlights the ridiculousness of a state paranoid enough to watch the movements of pretty much everyone, as well as notions of a state-mandated identity. The government bods who are desperate for foreign approval will do anything to appear more sophisticated than they know they are. But they also refuse to accept a straight answer. When we are hiding so much of ourselves, then surely everyone else is the same? And the more they protest, well, that only proves their guilt even more.

The Albanian flag is one of my favourite,
despite breaking the golden rule by having a 
colour on a colour (as opposed to having a colour
on a metal, or vice versa) 

The novel ends on a rather Nietzschean note, which actually underpins the whole premise. Both when we observe. and when we are observed, we change, and so does the other party. By spying on the populace, you are not simply determining what they are up to, but you are changing them, and yourself. The populace becomes increasingly secretive, feeling justified in antagonism towards the state. The state, in turn, sees everything in terms of sedition. You create the very behaviour you want to stamp out, falsely justifying your actions.

I found The File on H thoroughly enjoyable, lively prose with a tongue-in-cheek satire which hides a lot of ideas.