Author(s): Lloyd Jones

New Zealand Fiction

Biografiis an imaginative melding of travelogue and fable that sparked controversy on its release. When Lloyd Jones visited Albania in 1991, six years after the death of dictator Enver Hoxha, he heard rumours of a village dentist who looked like the dictator and had been forced to give up his identity and become his public double. Jones' quest to find Petar Schapallo gives shape not only to an intriguing traveller's tale, but a story about identity-changed, lost or falsified-in a country where identity was strictly controlled. Part travel narrative, part imaginative fiction, Biografiis an inquiry into the nature of identity itself. 'A fine piece of work, rich in startling detail.' Age