Irena Vladi May

I read it as a little girl in Communist Albania and fell in love with it. I got a copy by accident in my school's library as everything was being combed constantly by the communists and have never been able to put it back on the shelf. It's stuck with me all these years ( three decades now) When I told my husband how much I loved that book he got me an English version for my birthday. I re-read it and I didn't feel it was quite the masterpiece I had thought it was when I was a kid but the impact the book had on me is still strong to this day. A couple of years ago my brother bought the library of a German man and his car in Italy and amid all the other books, there was a German copy of my beloved book. One of the few prints before Hitler banned it. Oh, dear god was I in heaven! The book is now in my library in Florida and it's one of my dearest possessions.