Red Riding-Hood: a fairy-tale for grown-ups

A unique voice from Europe’s newest country, rooted in its oldest literary traditions – now in English for the first time.

A lonely, corrupted figure has a chance meeting with a vivacious young woman wearing a red hat. Soon they share passion, and an uneasy bond. But as their relationship follows its inevitable and archetypal course, they find themselves stripping away centuries of popular folklore and of the interaction between women and men.

Written on the frontier of Europe, where Biblical tales of conflict and sexual violence echo in very recent agony, Red-Riding Hood: a fairy-tale for grown-ups is a journey into the dark heart of western identity.

Ag Apolloni is one of the most significant and distinctive Albanian-language writers of his generation, admired for his contemporary yet elegant prose and for the rich diversity of references that inform it. He has published four other novels: The Howl of the Wolf(2013), Zazen (2014), Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame (2020) and If I Were a Devil (2024), as well as plays, poetry and criticism. His works have been translated into various languages and won many prizes. Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame was declared Kosovo’s Novel of the Year 2020.