Kadare was awarded the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor title by French President Emmanuel Macron

Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare was awarded the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor title by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron awarded the title “for his works, his courage to rise up against a dictatorial system … and a defender of freedom, a great writer of humanity.”

Kadare, 87, has long been mentioned as a possible contender for the Nobel Literature Prize.

France has made Kadare a foreign associate of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and also Commander of the Legion of Honor.