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Ismail Kadare, an acclaimed Albanian novelist and playwright who defied his country's longtime Communist rulers through his writing, has died in a Tirana hospital after having a heart attack, local television cited his editor as saying. He was 88.

Kadare, a prominent figure in Albanian and international literature, gained recognition in 1963 with his novel "The General of the Dead Army", which drew praise from literary critics worldwide.

Prime Minister Edi Rama paid tribute to Kadare on Facebook, hailing him as a "monument of Albanian culture".

Kadare received numerous global awards, including the Man Booker International Prize in 2005, the Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts in 2009, the Jerusalem Prize in 2015 and the America Award in Literature for a lifetime contribution to international writing in 2023.

He also produced poems, essays, and screenplays and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 15 times. Once, he said that media reports tipping him as a potential winner meant "many people think that I've already won it."

Kadare, who split his time between Albania and France, was the Balkan country's best-known novelist. His works have been published in 45 languages, but he repeatedly irked his homeland's former Communist rulers.

In 1975, after publishing a satirical poem called "The Red Pasha", aimed at Albania's Communist bureaucracy, Kadare was sent to do manual labour in a remote village in central Albania.

Three of his books were censored by Albanians, and in 1990, he sought political asylum in France after receiving threats following his criticism of the government and calls for democracy.

Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded him the title Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Born in 1936 in the town of Gjirokaster in the then-Kingdom of Albania, Kadare was the son of a post office employee and a housewife. After World War II, he graduated in languages and literature from the University of Tirana.

He is survived by his wife, the author Helena Kadare, and their two daughters.

(Reuters)