title: Spiritus (novel)
text: # Spiritus (novel)
  
  Spiritus is a 1996 novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. It marks a narrative and compositional turning point in his literary career. The influence of this novel will be felt in all of Kadare's subsequent novels. It is a novel about the anxiety of wiretapping.
  
  ## Plot
  
  A group of foreigners touring Eastern Europe after the fall of communism hears exciting rumours during its stay in Albania about the capture of the spirit from the dead. As it turns out, the spirit is in fact a listening device known to the notorious secret service as a "hornet".
  
  