Ismail Kadare, an acclaimed Albanian novelist and playwright who defied his country's longtime Communist rulers through his writing, has died in a Tirana hospital after having a heart attack, local television cited his editor as saying.

Albanian novelist and poet Ismail Kadare, whose irreverent works from inside communist Albania earned him international renown and repression from the country's dictatorship, has died in Tirana, his publishing editor said Monday.

Thousands of Albanians gathered in Tirana on Wednesday to pay tribute to their country's best-known novelist Ismail Kadare, who died on Monday after a heart attack.

Thousands of people have paid their last respects to Ismail Kadare in a state funeral in Tirana Wednesday, with a minute’s silence held nationwide in memory of the renowned Albanian novelist and poet

The Albanian literary giant was best known for works including "Broken April" and "The General of the Dead Army", chronicling life under communist dictator Enver Hoxha by way of allegorical stories.