Mr. Shyti's Shortcomings

The third installment in the Mr. Shyti series, following "Mr. Shyti's Interventions" (Dudaj, 2016) and "Mr. Shyti's Faults" (Dudaj, 2017). This book is presented as a sequel, but also as the foundation of a saga about a character the reader already knows. After publishing the previous two volumes and a Greek translation of an anthology, the author had planned to end the series and archive his never-ending creation, but apparently did not reckon correctly with the character, as Mr. Shyti still had much to say. Conceived as a monologue that is at times provocative, at times intriguing and at times entertaining, set in an imaginary coffee shop yet so familiar to Albanians of these years, the character embodies a tradition that perhaps begins with Socrates and his dialogues, giving the simple neighborhood coffee shop of Tirana the attributes of an ancient theatre stage, complete with a chorus, satellite characters and sometimes an imagined audience.