Discover a novel which arose from the author’s ambition to invent a hell of his own. Kadare’s macabre vision of tyranny was banned immediately when it first appeared in Albania in 1981. At the heart of the Sultan’s vast empire stands the mysterious Palace of Dreams. Inside, the dreams of every citizen are collected, sorted and interpreted in order to identify the ‘master-dreams’ that will provide the clues to the Empire’s destiny and that of its Monarch. An entire nation’s consciousness is thus meticulously laid bare and at the mercy of its government… Translated by Barbara Bray from the French version of the Albanian by Jusuf Vrioni