The Illegal Kisser: an unimaginable dictatorship

Azem Deliu, born in January 1996 in Skënderaj, Kosovo. The great success of him was the novel ＂The Illegal Kisser＂ (Onufri, Tirana 2016) which, besides being a national bestseller, has already been translated into English. Interest for the author is growing also in other countries. French press has called him ＂the great author of the small country＂ and ’’the new star of European literature’’. He is a member of the Association of Philosophers of Kosovo since the age of 19. He is being compared by Albanian and foreign media and critics with such names as Kadare, Dostoyevsky and Orwell. Besides being a very well known author, his opinions in Islamic extremism made a big mess in public opinion in Kosovo when he was physically attacked by Islamic terrorists and was portrayed in one side of public opinion as ’’free speech hero’’ while for the other side he was ’’the anti-Islamist provoker’’ who ’’deserved the attack’’. ＂The Illegal Kisser＂, his first novel, is also his international debut at the age of 21.