Fatos Lubonja

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Fatos Lubonja (b. 1951) is an Albanian writer and dissident.^[1]

[edit] Life

Fatos is the son of Todi Lubonja, who was a close associate of Enver Hoxha and head of the Albanian national television until the early 1970s. In the course of Hoxha's split with the USSR in 1960, Todi Lubonja was arrested for voicing opposition. Fatos, who had been studying physics in Tirana, was also arrested, due to the discovery of his diary, which was very critical of Hoxha.

Fatos Lubonja was initially sentenced to five years imprisonment. He was accused of belonging to a pro-Soviet circle in the prison and was sentenced to twenty more years. After having spent thirteen years at hard labor, he was moved to solitary confinement. There he wrote a diary and a novel on cigarette paper, which was concealed in the spine of a dictionary. His novel The Last Massacre is a take on communism under Hoxha.

Fatos Lubonja was released in 1991, after having spent nineteen years in prison. He is an outspoken critic of the Albanian government, president Sali Berisha and national poet and novelist Ismail Kadare. He edits the literary journal Përpjekja (Endeavour), in Tirana.