In 1949, Amik Kasoruho, then 17, was arrested for writing and sharing a leaflet that was critical of the government with his friends. As a consequence, he spent 7 years in Burrel Prison. While in prison, Amik’s father, Qemal Kasoruho, was executed without trial along with 21 other intellectuals under false charges in 1951.
After immigrating to Italy in 1990, he devoted himself to translating numerous books into Albanian, among them The Scarlet Letter, Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, and Atlas Shrugged. He also wrote extensively about his experiences and that of his fellow countrymen under the communist dictatorship in The Price of a Dream, A Half Century Nightmare, and in his fictionalized autobiography Escape From the Whim of the Gods. Splitting his time between Italy and Albania, he served as a cultural affairs advisor to the President of the Albanian Republic until his death in 2014.

Tweet