<p>Guided by the thesis that literature can transform social reality, <em>Tirana Modern </em>draws on ethnographic and historical material to examine the public culture of reading in modern Albania. Formulated as a question, the topic of the book is: How has Albanian literature and literary translation shaped social action during the longue durée of Albanian modernity? Drawing on material from the independent Albanian publisher, Pika pa sipërfaqe ("Point without Surface"), <em>Tirana Modern</em> provides a tightly focused ethnography of literary culture in Albania that brings into relief the more general dialectic between social imagination and social reality as mediated by reading and literature.</p>