The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother

{{Short description|2015 autobiographical novel by Ismail Kadare}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}

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| name = The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother

| image = File:Kukulla.jpg

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| caption = First edition

| author = Ismail Kadare

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| translator = John Hodgson

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| set_in = Albania and Moscow

| publisher = Onufri

| publisher2 = Harvill Secker

| pub_date = 2015

| english_pub_date = 2020

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| pages = 208

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The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother ({{langx|sq|Kukulla}}) is an autobiographical novel sketching Albanian author Ismail Kadare's relationship with his mother.{{Cite news|author=Nilanjana Roy|author-link=Nilanjana Roy|date=17 January 2020|title=The Doll by Ismail Kadare: A mesmerising autobiographical novel|newspaper=The Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/f76bf1c0-378a-11ea-ac3c-f68c10993b04}} It dwells upon the family's life in Gjirokastër and later in Tirana, "full of compelling details of life in a changing Albania",{{Cite news|title=The Doll by Ismail Kadare Review: a fascinating study of difficult love|author=John Burnside|author-link=John Burnside|date=9 January 2020|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/09/the-doll-by-ismail-kadare-review|newspaper=The Guardian}} as well as on the author's own time as a student at the Gorky Institute in Moscow.{{Cite news|author=Leo Robson|date=1 March 2020|title=The Doll by Ismail Kadare. Review: A slippery study of maternal obsession|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/doll-ismail-kadare-review-slippery-study-maternal-obsession/|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph}} While the portrait of his mother remains insubstantial, there are reflections upon the author's own youthful literary ambitions,{{Cite news|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/doll-ismail-kadare-brazil/|title=Childish Things: The narcissism of being a son|author=Kevin Brazil|date=20 March 2020|newspaper=The Times Literary Supplement}} and the nature of autocracy.{{Cite magazine|author=Boyd Tonkin|author-link=Boyd Tonkin|title=Albanian literary icon Ismail Kadare revisits 'home'|date=1 February 2020|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/albanian-literary-icon-ismail-kadare-revisits-home-|magazine=The Spectator}}

The work was first published in Albanian in 2015, and was translated into English by John Hodgson for publication by Harvill Secker in 2020.