| The General of the Dead Army | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Ismail Kadare |
| Original title | Gjenerali i Ushtrisë së vdekur |
| Country | Albania |
| Language | Albanian |
| Genre(s) | History |
| Publisher | Sh.B. Naim Frashëri |
| Publication date | 1963 1991 |
| Pages | 256 264 |
| ISBN | ISBN 99927-45-53-3 |
The General of the Dead Army is a novel written by Ismail Kadare in 1963.
In the early 1960s, nearly 20 years since the Second World War ended, an Italian general, accompanied by a priest who is also an Italian army colonel, is sent to Albania to locate and collect the bones of his countrymen who had died during the war and return them for burial in Italy. As they organise digs and disinterment, they wonder at the scale of their task. The general talks to the priest about the futility of war and the meaninglessness of the enterprise. As they go deeper into the Albanian countryside they find they are being followed by another general who is looking for the bodies of German soldiers killed in World War II. Like his Italian counterpart, the German struggles with a thankless job looking for remains to take back home for burial, and questions the value of such gestures of national pride.