With its flavour, tone, and spectacular events reminiscent of an ancient epic, Chronicle in Stone is probably the funniest, and at the same time, most tragic of Kadare's novels, depicting a world in which people believe in black magic, women live to be a hundred and fifty, and girls are drowned in wells by their families for having kissed a boy.

Its characters, the folklore and mythology infusing historical circumstances are reminiscent of some Caribbean novelists or even post-colonial African storytellers, and one cannot help compare its blend of surreal situations and political drama based on real events to South American novels, although Kadare apparently dislikes the label "magical realism" applied to his novels.

Chronicle in Stone was published in Albania during the years of Enver Hoxha, who came to power with the Communist Party after World War II, and stayed there until his death in the mid-eighties.

In this context, we can speculate on the reasons for the episodic appearance toward the end of the novel of a character described by the Italian garrison commander as "the dangerous Communist Enver Hoxha."

However, government control of the Albanian publishing industry during the Hoxha regime may have provided an incentive for the dictator's inclusion, beyond narrative necessity.