Tom Kuka (pen name of Enkel Demi) is an Albanian writer and journalist. In November of 2016, he published his first novel under the pseudonym Tom Kuka: Hide mbi kalldrëm (Jujube on Cobblestone), a crime novel that takes place in Tirana, Albania, during the 1930’s. Two years later, in November 2018, Kuka returned with another novel, Gurët e vetmisë (Stones of Solitude), a family saga that narrates the ordeal of escaping the land of the ancients, of a population that migrates and leaves its former life far behind. For this novel, he won the National Prize for Literature in 2019. In November 2019, he published his third novel, Ora e ligë (Evil Hour), in which a man picking up a sword is punished with an impossible love, and an old man has to challenge his fate and that of an entire village while travelling to the legendary land of the ancients. Kuka won the prize for Artistic Book of the Year in the Cult Academy’s cultural awards in 2020. His fourth novel Flama (Calamity) was published in March 2021 and was awarded The European Union Prize for Literature 2021.
Ora e ligë - The Evil Hour
Published in Italy Set in a time when honor is defended through vengeance and love is considered shameful, the story follows Sali Kamati, a man compelled to avenge his brother’s death. As he prepares for his own demise, he encounters Tusha, his wife’s granddaughter, who brings new hope and challenges societal norms. The novel blends epic and lyrical elements, exploring themes of death, love, prejudice, and freedom, and is often described as a form of Albanian magical realism. …
I rënë nga qielli - Fallen from the Sky
Albania 1997. A strange and mysterious shipment of Americans arrives in an Albania in turmoil. Chaos, fear, explosions, kidnappings, will be the background and everyday life that will accompany them while solving a shocking riddle. “Fallen from the Sky” is inspired by a true event, which merges with the author’s fantasy to faithfully show Albania on the edge of the abyss. During World War II, an American plane crashes in a remote area of Southern Albania and the entire crew disappears without a trace. Fifty years later, a group of Americans led by an Albanian wander through the madness of 1997 in search of the ghosts of the past. The novel ruthlessly describes a difficult period in Albania’s history through a gallery of characters from street thugs to foreign diplomats. Albania is at war, then it goes through peace as if it were at war, and finally enters war again. …
Gurët e vetmisë - The Stones of Solitude
Published in Germany. Winner of the National Literature Award for 2018. The Stones Of Solitude is a novel set in a land caught between borders, where a small group of people struggles to rebuild their lives in a place tied to their past, all while living under the shadow of history. The narrative weaves together the past, present, and future, blending memories and retrospectives, with characters existing in a timeless space. The central focus of the novel is the Paramithia massacre, where 72 prominent men were invited under the guise of peace talks but were instead betrayed and killed at the Selani stream, highlighting the deep scars of history and the persistence of violence. …
Hide mbi kalldrëm - Jujube on cobblestones
It is an homage to the old Tirana. It is the ’30’s. Albania, finally has a name, a government and a capital. And what a capital! Tirana is revealed to us with the tonalities of a black and white photography. Thanks to a masterful stile, we feel the stench of the sewers in the open sky; the sweat of the wage earners, the dogs roaming in the streets, but also the smell of the soap, the smell of the cooking on the ground floor and fruits that weigh on the trees in the yard. The white dust of plaster and the streets dazzle our eyes and the noisy roar of children in Bazar it’s another part of Tirana. And in this roar of voices and characters, Di Hima, the chief investigator of Tirana, a wise man, with an attractive character and still unmarried, investigates the murder of the Greek Andon, revealing a world of secrets and blackmails, by which can be saved only by a simple and peaceful love. The author reveals a grotesque and at the same time heartbreaking picture of a poor Albania, hungry and trampled, where human life has no value; and honor is just a facade to the eyes of the world. In fact, nothing has changed… almost a century ago, what was Tirana still remains Tirana. …
Rrethimi - The Siege
It is the First Balkan War, the Montenegrins have surrounded Shkodra, while the Serbs have occupied lands from the Zadrima plain to the Port of Shëngjin. An entire city is trapped in turmoil. Those within the siege live under the shadow of bombardments, the torment of hunger, and a thirst that no fire can quench. Survival seems like a curse, death a salvation. Kolë Laca must photograph this chaos. His camera not only immortalizes the chronicle of the city but also its fate. The tremor will freeze on the stone slab to save his word. A voice crying out from the castle stones will curse the given word, The Promise, leaving Esat Pasha sleepless, while Hasan Rizaj and the peaceful monk will point their fingers. Osja of the Fortune-Teller will witness it all, though imprisoned within the walls of solitude. Amidst all this chaos, Çerçiz Topulli, an Albanian national hero, roams in search of the enemy, even though he only encounters the promised one. An epic narrative of a nation’s resistance through the triumph of love. In the preface, the author writes: “It was a photograph, nothing more, just a photograph that led me on the path of this book. A few years ago, entirely by chance, thanks to those aimless wanderings on the internet, I came across the photo ‘Gjon Pali and his daughter’ by Kolë Maca. Observing this scene somehow caused a kind of bewilderment mixed with amazement. It was this fleeting moment that ignited my curiosity so strongly. “The Siege” is not a historical book. It includes real events taken from the chronicles of the time, mainly concerning how the people of Shkodra or others who were caught in the turmoil of the siege lived. But anyone who knows the history or is familiar with this event may notice historical inconsistencies or “mistakes,” such as anachronistic characters. This arises as a result of embellishment or what we call in modern language “fiction”. …
Flama
Winner of European Union Literature Prize, 2021 Published in Italy, Serbia. The Plague or Calamity is a wonderful metaphor for contemporary Albania experiencing a pandemic, and perhaps for what the author sees as the gluttony of humankind and its desecration of nature and human values. Tom Kuka fills his cart with bodies sick with ‘calamity’ while someone kills to cover up the sin from which all the horror flows. In a monarchical Tirana of turmoil, filth, cruelty and wickedness, the city’s population is dying of calamity – the real monster, sitting cross-legged, shortening lives and extinguishing humanity. In the meantime, a seemingly ordinary crime occurs: a Roma woman who casts fortune with a cup has had her throat cut in one of the poorest parts of the city. The main character, Di Hima, following the footsteps of Doctor Needle (the protagonist of a very well-known Albanian folk tale), is looking for the murderer. He needs to discover the killer and the motives that have driven them to such cruelty. Hima, the chief investigator of Tirana, was first introduced in the author’s debut novel Jujube on Cobblestone. …