Ag Apolloni

The novel "The Howl of the Wolf" (2013) addresses many themes from multiple angles. The novel also deals with the painful separation between the living and the dead. The novel is rife with despair and fury, accompanied by humor, with references to music, painting, film, and theater. Events are set in Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Italy and Austria, where the novel is completed. The novel "The Howl of the Wolf" is translated in Macedonian,[6] Czech[7][8][9] and Montenegrin.[10]

"Zazen" (2014) deals with the fate of a young Kosovar, a friend of the author, who, after graduation, returns to his homeland, but this return becomes tragic for him, as the municipality neglects him, misunderstood by the village, declared insane from the family. "Zazen" interlinks various topics: social, philosophical, political, national, religious, etc. It tells of Zen Zabel's anxiety and tragicomic life, which has many ideas, few demands, and no possibilities.

"Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame" (2020) is a docuroman (documentary novel) about the real tragedy of two Kosovo Albanian mothers from Gjakova, after the war of 1999: one lost her whole family - her husband and four sons - and continues to wait for them more than twenty years later; the other burned herself to death after the remains of two of her sons were returned to her. The novel is a mosaic of the ill-fortunes of war and the painful consequences of peace. It resonates with the powerful echoes and eternal truths of ancient Greek tragedy and with twentieth century human horrors; it explores the meaning of motherhood, family, and home. In 2022, it has been published in Dutch.[11] The novel was praised by the Dutch theorist Mieke Bal as "a literary masterpiece worth being turned into a film."[12] The novel has been promoted in The Hague, on the fifteenth anniversary of Kosovo’s independence.[13]

"Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups" (2022) is about a flirtatious Red Riding Hood and a sick Wolf. It is a love story and a walk through the magical forest of storytelling, where the characters enter the paths of mythology, fairy tales, religion, and animation. Screams and sighs, barks and bleats come as a symbolic confrontation that awakens the call of the wild within us.

This narrative uses cartoon logic within combinatorial art, where theatrical, film, and musical elements are combined; it is prose with poetry and drama inside. Set in a small country on the continent that took its name from a raped woman (Europe), it also talks about the rapes during the war in Kosovo and their consequences on peace. Also, one chapter about the desperate and lonely wolf is located in Debrecen, where the novel was written.

The novel is built as a philosophical walk through a real and fabulous world. This is not a documentary novel nor a pure fairy tale.

“Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups” has been written in Debrecen (Hungary), and it was published in Albania (by “Albas”) and in Kosova (by Bard Books), at the same time.[14]

The book "Drama: The story of an Eyes Collector, Halloween, Judith, Mat" (2010) contains three tragic dramas, which in the order of the number of characters, openly display the reference to the origin of Greek drama and antique theater (to The story of an eyes collector, who has only one character, fantasy leads to Thespis's carriage; Halloween includes the second character, according to Aeschylus's model, while Judith enters the third character, modeled on Sophocles), as well as a text of Aristophanes' spirit, as a relaxation for the public. Monodrama The story of an Eyes Collector is a harrowing story of an eye collector living in his pantry with 4,998 eyes collected during the war in Bosnia and Kosovo. Apolloni wrote this work at the age of 21 as "an elegy for the last decade of the last century, namely a reminder of the crimes that shocked the world." Monodrama is a story that treats love and crime, life and death as a binomial that can shock the public. ”Halloween is an incestuous story about Halloween night. This drama was written by Apolloni, prompted by reading a feast on the life of serial killer Ted Bundy. Judith is a biblically motivated drama treated as a mythical story of the East-West conflict, the misunderstanding between man and God, and subjection and courage. Comedy Mat is a pastime built on the works of directors Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, on the ridiculous confrontation between man and death.

"Hamlet according to Horatio" is a psychoanalytic tragedy embodying Freud's theoretical ideas to give a possible story of Hamlet, touching on the theme of double incest (brother-sister, mother-son) and the theme of multiple betrayals. "Hamlet according to Horatio" is a pastiche, or dramatic hypertext, built on Shakespeare's Hamlet and on Freud's interpretations of Hamlet as an imperfect Oedipus. Thematically, "Hamlet according to Horatio" is an alternate story echoed by Oresteia, Oedipus Rex, and Hamlet. This drama, called “My Hamlet” as a working title, has been announced as the winner of the annual "Katarina Josipi" Drama Award.[15]

"Scanderbeg: Marlowe's Manuscript" is a play written according to the postmodern principle of manuscript, to find an Elizabethan drama of the 16th century which is considered a lost drama: "The True History of George Scanderbeg" by Christopher Marlowe. For the writing of this play, the author has used many historical, literary, cinematographic, and theatrical materials to create a credible reality of the Scanderbeg era. Here the hero presents himself between myth and reality, both a great and a human figure.[16]

"Zomb" (2009) is a madrigal book. It contains a total of 100 poems and an epistle-shaped representation. The book begins with a provocative dedication ("My Friend's Wife"), with two verses from English poet John Milton ("If death joins me with you / it will be life for me"), as it unfolds in six units: Ouverture, Edenic Waltz, Dionysian Sonata, Siren Symphony, Requiem Eros and Coda. "Zomb" is an erotic-themed book built on the principles of the medieval madrigal. It is a book that contains many elements of classical music, jazz, blues, rock, pop, etc.; from world cinema, from ancient, medieval, modernist, and contemporary literature; and also from religions such as Buddhism, Totemism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

"My Middle Ages" is a book of autobiographical essays, also referred to as narrative-essayist autobiography.[17][18] The book consists of 10 essays with Latin titles: Obscura, Vulgus, Doctrina, Pelegrin, Allegoria, Persona, Schisma, Templarius, Inquisitio and Memento, which cover the life of the author and present-day Kosovar actuality.[19]

Apart from fiction, Ag Apolloni also deals with literary studies.[20] He has so far published two study books: "Postmodern Parable" and "The Paradigm of Proteus". The first study, an extension of his master's thesis, is a monograph on the first postmodern Albanian writer, Rexhep Qosja. The second study, which is his doctoral thesis, is a monograph on the most translated Albanian novel, The General of the Dead Army, by Ismail Kadare. Also, in 2016 he published the book Konica's Suitcase, which is a collection of essays dealing with various issues of Albanian literature, such as its language, values, themes and functions of propaganda, historical, political, religious etc. It discusses the main authors, works, and phenomena of this literature. In 2019 he started to publish a critical book called "Commentum", his major project in several volumes.

• Zomb (2009)
• Seneca's Sandals (Albanian: Sandalet e Senekës), (2020)
• The Rhetoric of Silence (Albanian: Retorika e heshtjes), (2021)
• Notes from the cave (Albanian: Shënime nga shpella), (2023)

• The Howl of the Wolf (Albanian: Ulurima e ujkut), (2013)
• Zazen (2014)
• Glimmer of hope, glimmer of flame (Albanian: Një fije shprese, një fije shkrepëse), (2020)
• Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups (Albanian: Kësulëkuqja: përrallë për të rritur), (2022)

• The Story of An Eyes Collector, Halloween, Judith, Mat, (2010)
• Hamlet according to Horatio (Albanian: Hamleti simbas Horacit), (2017)
• Skanderbeg: Manuscript of Marlowe (Albanian: Skenderbeu, manuskripti i Marlout), (2018)

• The Postmodern Parable (Albanian: Parabola postmoderne), (2010)
• The Paradigm of Proteus (Albanian: Paradigma e Proteut), (2012)
• Konitza's Suitcase (Albanian: Koferi i Konicës), (2016)
• Commentum (2019)

• My Middle Age(s) (Albanian: Mesjeta ime), (2019)

1. English: Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame, translated by Robert Wilton. Cornwall: Elbow, 2023.

2. German: - Ein Funke Hoffnung, ein zündender Funke, translated by Zuzana Finger. Zürich: Xanthippe, 2023.

3. Dutch: - Een sprankje hoop, een lont, translated by Jan Jansen. Utrecht: Het Wereldvenster, 2022.

4. Montenegrin: - Vučji urlik, translated by Danilo Brajović. Podgorica: Zavoda za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, 2022.

5. Czech: - Vytí vlka, vlka vytí, translated by Orkida Backus Borshi. Prague: Kniha Zlín, 2019.

6. Macedonian: - Завивањето на волкот, translated by Mirjana Ilieva Jashari. Skopje: Goten, 2015.