I knew very little about this dictator before reading this book. And, oh my, was he horrible! So horrible that I'm somewhat surprised that i hadn't previously heard more about him. It is shocking that this man was able to do so many awful things for so long. I now have even more sympathy for a friend who is originally from Albania.

The story of the Stalinist Communist dictator of Albania, who reigned through terror and repression, and left a shocking legacy of death.

Well researched, detailed, powerful, compelling. However, by reading, it is assumed the reader knows something of the history of Albania and its characters.

Hoxha himself wrote over 68 works, including a 13 volume memoir - this book uses diary entries, letters, communications, interview and memoirs of those who survived his brutal regime.

Hoxha appeared from nowhere - a political unknown of humble background; in fact, he was not politically active until about 1941 when he became leader by default - a compromise candidate. Following official elections in 1943, he began the systematic elimination of all rivals - torture, internment and execution became his trade-marks. Even up until his death in 1985, his grip on power was strong and unquestioned. Only once the regime collapsed in 1990 could his real story be told without fear.

his is a biography of a man for whom a 'truthful' biography seems impossible and oh yeah, he's horrible. So the writing is full of names but each time a name is mentioned, the story is interrupted to tell you of that name's demise (no spoiler alert, everyone, from childhood to adulthood, this man encounters dies, in prison and/or exile). This chronological disruption really made it hard to read especially since my knowledge of Albania is not enough to actually know who these people were. Nevertheless, this seems like a good step, though clearly (understandably) biased, an important step in confronting this spectre from the not-so-distant past.

Most of my information about Albania were post-communist international media reports or the books of Ismail Kadare, as the most sources were in a language I do not know. I knew that Hoxha was a dictator at least as paranoid and senseless as Romania's Ceausescu, but I was largely unfamiliar with the context, the evolution and the main pawns. Based on local sources, interviews, including with people that at certain moments of time were part of the 'inner circle' of the dictator and local archives recently open to the public, this book is the comprehensive resource in English about Hoxha and the Albanian communism in general. A noteworthy contribution to the history of communism in South Eastern Europe.

I read Enver Hodxa with great interest. I knew nothing about him prior to reading this, and only slightly more about Albania. I think this is an important book, because it is accessible and tells a story of a dictator lacking in any sense of human connection. One of the things that is most striking about Hodxa's story is the fact that the only people with whom he was close but did not were the members of his immediate family. Read the book, and you learn one thing: only Enver survived among his colleagues, comrades, and friends.

While the writing is good, I thought that the first 2/3 of the book lacked a clear, strong organizing structure. The last section, which essentially is organized around the final purge and then Hodxa's declining health and death, was the strongest.