Luan Starova

Luan Arif Starova (; 14 August 1941 – 24 February 2022) was an Albanian writer who lived in North Macedonia. He published his works both in Albanian and in Macedonian. He is translated in over 20 languages around the world.

Biography Luan Starova was born in Pogradec, an Albanian town on Lake Ohrid, in 1941. His family had legal and scholarly background: his grandfather on the father's side had served as an Ottoman qadi in Prilep, before retiring and emigrating to Turkey; his father earned a law degree in Istanbul, and was a lawyer and a scholar.

In 1943, when Luan was a small child, his family moved to Struga, then annexed by Albania, at the opposite end of Lake Ohrid from Pogradec. (Struga is now part of the Republic of North Macedonia.) After WWII, the family moved to Skopje, the capital of the new SR Macedonia.

Starova worked as a professor of French literature at Skopje University,

Starova started writing novels in 1971.

Personal life and death Luan Starova's father, Arif Starova, who in his youth earned a law degree in Istanbul, worked as a lawyer in both Albania and Yugoslavia. An ardent bibliophile and amateur historian, he joined the staff of the National History Institute in Skopje, where he was able to use his knowledge of Ottoman Turkish to translate Ottoman-era documents.

After his retirement, he continued as an independent researcher.

The theme of "my Father's books" often appears in Starova's work. Starova's older brother, Vulnet Starova (mk), was a doctor and politician. He served as the Speaker of the People's Assembly of Macedonia in 1986–1991. Luan's wife is Gëzime Starova.

Starova died on 24 February 2022, at the age of 80.

Works Луѓе и мостови (1971) (People and Bridges) Kutijtë e pranvëres (1971) (The Boundaries of Spring) Barikadat e kohës (1976) (The Barricades of Time) Доближувања (1977) (Approaches) Релации (1982) (Relations) Кинеска пролет (1984) (Chinese Spring) Пријатели (1986) (Friends) Континуитети (1988) (Continuities) Митска птица (1991) (Mythic Bird) Песни од Картагина (1991) (Songs from Carthage) Мостот на љубовта (1992) (The Bridge of Love) Татковите книги (1993) (My Father's Books) Времето на козите (1993) (The Time of the Goats; a small extract is translated as The Goat Age) Балкански клуч (1995) (The Balkan Key) Француски книжевни студии - 20 век (1995) (French literary studies: the 20th century) Атеистички музеј (1997) (The Museum of Atheism) Пресадена земја (1998) (The transplanted land) Патот на јагулите (2000) (The Path of the Eels)

English translations Two of Luan Starova's novels from the Balkan Saga cycle (My Father's Books and The Time of the Goats) have been published in English translation, translated by Christina E. Kramer. In 2014, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to fund her work on translating another novel from this cycle, The Path of the Eels (possibly under an English title Pyramid of Water). This was the first time ever a NEA grant was awarded to support a translation from Macedonian to English.

French translations Le Rivage de l'exil, Éditions de l'Aube, Collection Regards croisés, 2003, 284 pages (ISBN 978-2-87678-860-2) (traduction du macédonien par Clément d'Içartéguy, nom de plume de Patrick Chrismant, premier ambassadeur de France à Skopje) - préface d’Edgar Morin Le Temps des chèvres, Fayard, 1997 (ISBN 978-2-213-59801-7) (traduction du macédonien par Clément d'Içartéguy) Faïk Konitza et Guillaume Apollinaire : une amitié européenne, L'Esprit des péninsules, 1998 (ISBN 978-2-910435-37-0) Les Livres de mon père, Fayard, 1998 (ISBN 978-2-213-60171-7) (traduction du macédonien et de l'albanais par Clément d'Içartéguy) Le Chemin des anguilles, Éditions des Syrtes, 2009 (ISBN 978-2-84545-146-9) (traduction du macédonien par Clément d'Içartéguy) Le Musée de l'athéisme, Fayard, 1999 (ISBN 978-2-213-60431-2) (traduction du macédonien par Harita Wybrands)