Sitting in one of the bars in the area of ??the Artificial Lake, Ismail and Helena Kadare seemed to have no experience of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature, considered the most prestigious for literature.

"As you can see, I have no experience. 40 years ago I could have," said Ismail Kadare to Euronews Albania.

His wife, the writer Helena Kadare, expressed that she did not expect anything from the jury that said "No" to the announcement of Ismail Kadare as a Nobel laureate. He even added that they do not know the French writer Annie Ernaux , who won the prize this year.

"We don't know the writer who won the Nobel, even though we live in France. I've never heard it, to be sure, but I haven't even heard it as a name. As long as the Nobel jury is the same and has said 'no' for 40 years, you don't have to change your mind," said writer Helena Kadare.

Even though he has received awards of the same level as great world writers, even though he has been compared to Kafka, Gogol and Orwell, even though it has been said that he has a unique universal voice, the Nobel has stayed away from Kadare for years. He seems to have made peace with this fact.