| The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother | |
| Author: | Ismail Kadare |
| Translator: | John Hodgson |
| Set In: | Albania and Moscow |
| Publisher: | Onufri |
| Publisher2: | Harvill Secker |
| Pub Date: | 2015 |
| English Pub Date: | 2020 |
| Pages: | 208 |
The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother (sq|Kukulla) is an autobiographical novel sketching Albanian author Ismail Kadare's relationship with his mother.[1] It dwells upon the family's life in Gjirokastër and later in Tirana, "full of compelling details of life in a changing Albania",[2] as well as on the author's own time as a student at the Gorky Institute in Moscow.[3] While the portrait of his mother remains insubstantial, there are reflections upon the author's own youthful literary ambitions,[4] and the nature of autocracy.[5]
The work was first published in Albanian in 2015, and was translated into English by John Hodgson for publication by Harvill Secker in 2020.[1]