8 must-read novels books like A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare

Cover of A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare

A Dictator Calls

By: Ismail Kadare

3.14

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

Using a sophisticated and literary version of the ever-popular game of telephone to examine the rel…

"And a cursory glance at Karl Marx shows that a man who had dedicated his life to the violent overthrow of the world order never devoted half a page in any of his dozens of books to the trauma and remorse caused by the shedding of human blood. Not to understand this means not only failing to learn anything from Homer and Dante, but something much worse. Karl Marx proposed for humanity a huge slaughter without adding a simple human warning: beware of qualms of conscience!"

-Ismail Kadare, A Dictator Calls

If you liked the novels plot in A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare , here is a list of 8 books like this:

Cover of Torto Arado by Itamar Vieira Junior

1. Torto Arado

By: Itamar Vieira Junior

4.49

Format: 280 pages, Paperback

Vencedor dos prémios LeYa (2018) e Jabuti, finalista do Oceanos (2020). Um livro comovente que traz… read more

Similar categories in Itamar Vieira Junior's Torto Arado book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literature
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"Olha, dona"

-Itamar Vieira Junior, Torto Arado

"Durante algum tempo, pensei que pudesse haver uma ruptura entre nossas famílias, mas o perdão aflorava da bênção que poderia ser o retorno de alguém de qual somos parte."

-Itamar Vieira Junior, Torto Arado

"Você incutiu naquelas vidas um respeito grande por suas próprias histórias. Mas agora nem você conseguia mais se iluminar com a esperança de que a mudança fosse possível, muito menos acreditava que a…"

-Itamar Vieira Junior, Torto Arado

Cover of Niente di vero by Veronica Raimo

2. Niente di vero

By: Veronica Raimo

3.59

Format: 176 pages, Hardcover

Prendete lo spirito dissacrante che trasforma nevrosi, sesso e disastri famigliari in commedia, da … read more

Similar categories in Veronica Raimo's Niente di vero book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
"Quando finalmente arrivò la scoperta dei libri, non fu una forma di evasione, piuttosto una rasserenante coalescenza di noia. Riuscivo quasi a visualizzarla, bianca e melmosa: leggere era come sprofo…"

-Veronica Raimo, Niente di vero

Cover of Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

3. Kairos

By: Jenny Erpenbeck

3.46

Format: 379 pages, Hardcover

Die neunzehnjährige Katharina und Hans, ein verheirateter Mann Mitte fünfzig, begegnen sich Ende de… read more

Similar categories in Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • literature
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
"She would like a shallow life, swift and shallow, till some day she can start again. Get through her time fast until then. And when will that be? Then."

-Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos

Cover of Wild Houses by Colin  Barrett

4. Wild Houses

By: Colin Barrett

3.78

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A darkly funny and deeply moving debut novel about crimes of desperation, dreams abandoned, and sma… read more

Similar categories in Colin Barrett's Wild Houses book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
"What you are in, Dev, is a holding pattern, only you're not holding out for anything."

-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses

"All boys, all children, are capable of cruelty at the right juncture of opportunity and circumstance, but only a few become committed prodigies of sadism..."

-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses

"In the dream, exactly as he had in real life, he sensed the slow, inexorable approach of the shapeless, prospectless days to come, days when there would be no need to get out of bed or brush his teet…"

-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses

"He looked around the empty kitchen. A part of him wanted this of course. A part of him had always wanted this, to be alone, away from even the prospect of any demand upon him to talk, to interact, to…"

-Colin Barrett, Wild Houses

Cover of The Details by Ia Genberg

5. The Details

By: Ia Genberg

3.90

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

An acclaimed Swedish author makes her English language debut with this intoxicating novel in the ve… read more

Similar categories in Ia Genberg's The Details book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
"La fiducia resta lettera morta, se non la si sente nelle ossa."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

"L'io , o meglio, il cosidetto "io", non è altro che questo: ciò che resta delle persone a cui ci siamo stretti."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

"La vita mi ha regalato la mia buona dose di magia, e il più delle volte è successo all'incontro con gli altri. Lì c'è qualcosa. Lì, soltanto lì."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

"Per i morti la successione del tempo non ha importanza, l'unica cosa che conta sono i dettagli, la densità, il come e il cosa e tutto ciò che riguarda il chi."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

Cover of The Silver Bone (The Kyiv Mysteries, #1) by Andrey Kurkov

6. The Silver Bone (The Kyiv Mysteries, #1)

By: Andrey Kurkov

3.43

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

From the Ukrainian Andrey Kurkov, a perplexing mystery from a world-renowned literary master that i… read more

Similar categories in Andrey Kurkov's The Silver Bone (The Kyiv Mysteries, #1) book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • russia
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
Cover of No es un río by Selva Almada

7. No es un río

By: Selva Almada

3.95

Format: 104 pages, Kindle Edition

Enero y el Negro llevan de pesca a Tilo, hijo adolescente de Eusebio, el amigo muerto. Mientras beb… read more

Similar categories in Selva Almada's No es un río book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • literature
  • fiction
  • novels
  • adult
Cover of Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

8. Headshot

By: Rita Bullwinkel

3.63

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical inti… read more

Similar categories in Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • novels
"The desire to please people is the desire to not be singular."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"Tanya Maw's sister is two years older, the perfect age gap for wisdom transmission."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"It can be intoxicating to play a sport that requires one to look in their opponent's eyes."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"It's a warmth that she'll feel again very few times in her life. It's almost like love, but it has a surer, less desperate edge to it."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

Cover of Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

9. Simpatía

By: Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

3.49

Format: 272 pages, Paperback

Rodrigo Blanco se ha consolidado como una de las grandes voces de la literatura latinoamericana y s… read more

Similar categories in Rodrigo Blanco Calderón's Simpatía book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literature
  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
Cover of Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

10. Enlightenment

By: Sarah Perry

3.70

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

A dazzling new work of literary fiction from the author of The Essex Serpent, a story of love and a… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Perry's Enlightenment book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"Thomas [Hart] lived where he'd been born, and where (so he often thought without rancor) he'd very likely die; and if he lived alone he was not lonely, that being a condition not of solitude but of l…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"So I told her this: that it's true I've only rarely been happy, and perhaps more often been sad. But I have been content. I have lived. I have felt everything available to me: I've been faithless, de…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"I wish I could say, James, that we forgave each other in the end. I wish I could say: she put her head on my shoulder and I welcomed it and we laughed and said all was well. But in fact we were quiet…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"...in the ordinary way we love because we're loved, and give more or less what we're given. But to love without return is more strange and more wonderful, and not the humiliating thing I'd once taken…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

Cover of Huaco retrato by Gabriela Wiener

11. Huaco retrato

By: Gabriela Wiener

3.89

Format: 170 pages, Paperback

La muerte de su padre y los fantasmas de su herencia marcan el retorno de Wiener con esta exploraci… read more

Similar categories in Gabriela Wiener's Huaco retrato book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
Cover of This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

12. This Strange Eventful History

By: Claire Messud

3.63

Format: 448 pages, Hardcover

An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history, from one of our finest… read more

Similar categories in Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
"Family life, like playing chess, involved always thinking several steps ahead."

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

"Literature... Now, that's a religion I can believe in. That is perhaps my God."

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

"... she'd been a fool, enamored of a figment, had created the soul of a man who never existed -"

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

"All-U-Can Hi-way 4-Sale Thru. This American English thrilled him - its energy, its freedom, its carelessness."

-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History

Cover of Orbital by Samantha Harvey

13. Orbital

By: Samantha Harvey

3.73

Format: 207 pages, Hardcover

A slender novel of epic power, Orbital  deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men … read more

Similar categories in Samantha Harvey's Orbital book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • novels
"Maybe we're the new dinosaurs and need to watch out."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

"The past comes, the future, the past, the future. It's always now, it's never now."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

"Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

"That's all this great human endeavor of space exploration really is, he thinks, an animal migration, a bid for survival. A looping song sent into the open, a territorial animal song."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

Cover of The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone

14. The House on Via Gemito

By: Domenico Starnone

3.65

Format: 480 pages, ebook

Available in English for the first time, this extraordinary prize-winning novel confirms Domenico S… read more

Similar categories in Domenico Starnone's The House on Via Gemito book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literature
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong

15. Mater 2-10

By: Hwang Sok-yong

3.67

Format: 486 pages, Paperback

International Booker–nominated virtuoso Hwang Sok-yong is back with another powerful story — an epi… read more

Similar categories in Hwang Sok-yong's Mater 2-10 book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • literature
  • historical
  • politics
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare

16. A Dictator Calls

By: Ismail Kadare

3.14

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

Using a sophisticated and literary version of the ever-popular game of telephone to examine the rel… read more

Similar categories in Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • russia
  • literature
  • historical
  • politics
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • albanian literature
  • novels
  • adult
"And a cursory glance at Karl Marx shows that a man who had dedicated his life to the violent overthrow of the world order never devoted half a page in any of his dozens of books to the trauma and rem…"

-Ismail Kadare, A Dictator Calls

Cover of My Friends by Hisham Matar

17. My Friends

By: Hisham Matar

4.34

Format: 399 pages, Hardcover

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return , a luminous novel of friendship, family, and … read more

Similar categories in Hisham Matar's My Friends book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • literature
  • historical
  • politics
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
"A vast distance exists between a protester and his slogan; the entire history of politics exists in that gap."

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

"For a writer, exile is prison, a severing from the source, and so, courageous or not, he dies in front of our eyes."

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

"She was older and all the more beautiful, had the weary tiredness of one who, in surrendering to her life, was ennobled by it."

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

"I walked off feeling an emptiness well up inside me. It seemed, for all the emptiness that it was, a presence. It made me want to run away, dive deeper into myself, into that cold desolation, to the …"

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

Cover of Białe noce by Urszula Honek

18. Białe noce

By: Urszula Honek

3.77

Format: 160 pages, Hardcover

Z pozoru nic się nie dzieje: mała podgórska miejscowość, kilka osób, nieuchwytny czas. A jednak świ… read more

Similar categories in Urszula Honek's Białe noce book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literature
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
Cover of What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma

19. What I'd Rather Not Think About

By: Jente Posthuma

3.77

Format: 224 pages, Paperback

What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can’t live without t… read more

Similar categories in Jente Posthuma's What I'd Rather Not Think About book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literature
  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
"Cracks in the ground aren't always visible to the naked eye. Every movement has the potential to take you down."

-Jente Posthuma, What I'd Rather Not Think About

"This was shocking to me, because if the oldest person I knew understood even less about the world than I did, then how was it possible that other adults had all the answers? And what was the point of…"

-Jente Posthuma, What I'd Rather Not Think About

"To be a natural presence, you shouldn't take up too much space, which I always found easy at the beginning of a friendship. It felt nice to reshape myself into precisely the right format until the mo…"

-Jente Posthuma, What I'd Rather Not Think About

Cover of The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

20. The Safekeep

By: Yael van der Wouden

4.08

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the … read more

Similar categories in Yael van der Wouden's The Safekeep book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
Cover of Held by Anne   Michaels

21. Held

By: Anne Michaels

3.66

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

A breathtaking and mysterious new novel from the beloved Anne Michaels, internationally bestselling… read more

Similar categories in Anne Michaels's Held book and Ismail Kadare's A Dictator Calls

  • literary fiction
  • literature
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"Who can say what happens when we are remembered?"

-Anne Michaels, Held

"Do we really need our own misery to teach us to be kind?"

-Anne Michaels, Held

"We know life is finite. Why should we believe death lasts forever?"

-Anne Michaels, Held

"Would he know the moment of his death or would it be like night falling."

-Anne Michaels, Held

20 Best fiction books like A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare

Transform Your Habits

Torto Arado

Itamar Vieira Junior

4.49

Transform Your Habits

Niente di vero

Veronica Raimo

3.59

Transform Your Habits

Kairos

Jenny Erpenbeck

3.46

Transform Your Habits

Wild Houses

Colin Barrett

3.78

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21 best-selling fiction books like Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

Transform Your Habits

Torto Arado

Itamar Vieira Junior

4.49

Transform Your Habits

The Wren, the Wren

Anne Enright

3.55

Transform Your Habits

Kairos

Jenny Erpenbeck

3.46

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