A review by andrew61
Broken April by Ismail Kadare

5.0

As I started this book I knew it was set in an Albania earlier in the 20th century yet was so intrigued by the idea of communities having ritualistic blood feuds in which a killing leads to families, generation by generation, killing members of the other clan, each murder triggering a revenge killing of an individual yet the whole thing being governed by rules that are centuries old and are abided by , that I searched on line the word 'Kanun' and found that even in the last 10 years there are reports of it continuing. If it wasn't so horrific the manner in which the story is written and the ritualism of it is almost hypnotically beautiful (probably the wrong expression). The plot centres around Gjorg who at the begining is about to kill a member of another family in retribution for the murder of his brother in a chain that has gone back generations. After the killing according to tradition he is given 30 days amnesty before the bereaved family can kill him. He wanders around the vast plteau of the Albanian countryside after he has visited the manor to pay the Prince the blood money fee. At the same time a writer from the capital Tirana and his beautiful fiancee are travelling the plateau in a carriage visiting inns and the countryside but the writer Bessian is obsessed with Kanun and its rituals in an anthropological manner to the point that it is creating an issue in the days old marriage. Bessian , his wife and Gjorj have a very fleeting encounter but the wife Diana becomes obsessed with Gjorj and his fate as does Gjorj with this chance sight of beauty. I won't say more but I found the writing compelling, it was gothic in its feel having a sense of the mists and doom of say a 19th cetury gothic horror, yet poetically describes the beauty of the rituals and the countryside. The feeling that the reader is immersed in the journey of Gjorj is also countered with a feeling of observing something from a distance with a sense of an inevitable ending.I am still amazed by the tradition itself and the book was interesting purely on the basis of a picture of such a strange culture. Suffice to say this was an excellent read and makes me want to read more by Kadare.