When the Pharaoh Cheops comes to the throne, he decrees that no pyramid is to be constructed for him. The court sages consult the documents and hasten to change his mind. In the past the pyramids have been built not just as royal tombs but as the means to keep in subjection a people who might otherwise get ideas about emancipation. The Pharaoh relents and the pyramid takes a lifetime to build, sucking the nation dry of money -and of blood -and enabling the tyranny to flourish. Each day the slavemasters turn their energies to the enslavement of the population and each day more blocks of stone are hauled into position to construct the monument to oppression. Albania's greatest novelist, Kadare has written a telling political fable which reflects the grim realities of his country as it laboured under the Stalinist tyranny of Enver Hoxha.
- ISBN10 1611458005
- ISBN13 9781611458008
- Publish Date 9 May 2013 (first published 1 February 1996)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Arcade Publishing
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 168
- Language English