The first pages of the three manuscripts were masked as Albanian translations of works by Siegfried Lenz, before Durand travelled to Tirana to get the remainder of the novels and successfully deposit them in a safe at the Banque de la Cité in Paris.

Translated by the famous Albanian violinist, Tedi Papavrami, from the original and unrevised manuscripts, Agamemnon's Daughter first appeared in French in 2003, but only after Kadare had already authored its sequel, The Successor.

Much like Joyce's Ulysses, the novella is an internal monologue chronicling the thoughts of the narrator about Suzana and the people he encounters as he walks to the stands of the stadium.

As is usually the case with Kadare, the destinies of some of these people – none of which have names, but initials – are juxtaposed to an ancient Balkan tale, introduced first as an elucidatory comment on the rise of G. Z., a sycophantic figure who survived several purges in manners unknown to many.

However, the overarching analogy is the one the narrator uncovers while reading Graves' Greek Myths and the one tempting him to liken Suzana's destiny (as well as the destiny of Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili) to the one of Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigeneia – all victims of "a tyrant's cynical ploy", one which, instead of humane and exemplary, served only to the cause of giving the tyrants – Agamemnon, Stalin, Hoxha, or the designated successor in this case – "the right to demand the life of anyone else" in the future.