REVIEW: The Death of Night. Selected poems by Ndrek Gjini. Pbck. 89pp. Emal publishers. ISBN 9928-04-026-5

By Michael Mullen*

I cannot recall the exact date and day upon which I met Ndrek Gjini. He was a charming man, quiet of voice and possessed an intelligent eye. I regard Ndrek’s poetry as firm, sad, heart warming and unusual. It has a definite tone and deep maturity. It looks at the world in an unusual way. He looks upon us with a novel eye. Ndrek observes things, which we take for granted. He looks upon everything freshly as if the world has been newly made for him. It was slowly and with difficulty that he has reached that position but one must remember that there have been fine writers in English who were born abroad. Tom Stoppard was born in Czechoslovakia and Conrad was Polish. Samuel Beckett wrote in French.
Ndrek Gjini’s poems are wonderful to read. Every verse is human. Every page tells you something about the man, the family and the small domestic adventures, which are part of living and always have been so. His writing is never sycophantic. He states his truth plainly. He set things down as he sees them in an easy fashion.
Such voices are wonderful to listen to. I am sure that a wide range of people will enjoy his poems.

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*Michael Mullen  is an Irish novelist, with international reputation 
 with over 30 novels published in Ireland and abroad