GJORGThis was the fateful day in his lifeIt was the second time in his life that he had lain in wait to take revengeBut the man he must kill was the same oneHis family had had great trouble paying the fine for the first wound, and a second fine would ruin themBut there was no penalty for deathHe felt as if his name had quitted his body, his chest, his skin, to pour itself cruelly outsideThe messengers of death spread that name everywhereHe felt that from now on the lives of all the generations to come in the two families would be an endless funeral feastThirty days, he said to himselfFrom now on, April would be tinged with a bluish pain . . .Half a March and half an April, like two broken branches glittering with frostWhat would he do in the thirty days left to him?At first it seemed a brief time, too brief, a handful of days too few for anythingBut a few minutes later this same respite seemed horribly long and absolutely uselessAt a distance, like everything on that day of mists, mountaineers looked anonymous and unsubstantialThe Kanun was stronger than it seemedIts power reached everywhere, covering lands, the boundaries of fieldsThe world was divided into two parts: The one that fell under the blood-law, and the other that was outside that lawHis movements, his face, and specially his eyes, suggested the calm of a man without illusionsPenalties came thronging to his imaginationThe world shone like glass, and with a kind of crystal madnessIt might begin to slip any moment and shatter into thousands of fragmentThe whole world was stained with bloodKanun: Two fingers-breadth of honor have been stamped on out forehead by Almighty GodHe touched his forehead to find the exact place where his honor might beHe said: More blood must flowLife seemed to mark timeA small red stain took shape in the heart of that endless whiteBESSIAN AND DIANAIt's beautiful and terrible at the same timeWe are entering the shadow-landThe place where the laws of death prevails over the laws of lifeLike all great things, the Kanun is beyond good and evilThe Kanun is universalDivinity, destiny, fatality. They are all fine things, but they are frighteningMountaineer: Everything is possible for us , there is one thing that is forbidden, and that is to lift the lid of the pot on the fireIt's in the logic of things that every great idea has a flaw that does not diminish it but brings it more within our reachNow sleep spread before her imaginationMany mornings must have been condensed in that bit of grey lightsDIANA THINKING ABOUT GJORGSo pale he was — chosen by deathAnd that was what his eyes had said, fixed on hers: I am here only for a short time, foreign womanGJORGThe movement of time seemed very strange to himUp to a certain hour, the day seemed endless to himWell, here's AprilBESSIAN AND DIANADoctor: I count the wounds, classify them, and do nothing elseBlood has been turned into merchandiseBessian: your books, your art, they all smell of murderGJORGLeaving time, he said to himselfIt seemed strange that someone could leave his timeBESSIANThe squeaking of the carriage wheels were appropriate music for his doubts, his conjectures, his remorseGJORGThe truce was over and he had entered into another timeThe time beyond the Bessa? Eternal time, that was no longer his, without days, without seasons, without years, without a future, abstract time.The mountains were receding ever more slowly, sinking back into solitude
English Review:I consider this book to be a perfect introduction especially for foreigners (but also for Albanians who are not free from prejudices too about their own country) to the phenomenon of the blood feud. In this book Kadare is able to show the blood feud, which has for hundreds of years bean the institution by which Albanians organized the social life in the region of North Albania, not only as a dramatic phenomenon with negative social and economical consequences but also as an epic and over-natural, monumental phenomenon, that Albanians have invented. He brings it in connection with the Albanian Hospitality to emphasize the nobility of those people, who protect a foreigner and are ready to sacrifice for him, to give him protection even at the cost of entering in the vicious circle of blood feud. For Kadare, a guest is a kind of half-god. He explains this social phenomena with the concept of Besa- the given word or the promise. In the book Kadare considers Besa the most complete form of moral attitude. The books leaves a feeling of sadness and tragic is found even in the nature of the wild mountains. That is how he judges the blood feud at the end of the book, as something tragic and sad. The whole region is similar to a "reign of the dead", that do not know how a normal life looks like. They live to protect their honour and this is considered by the author a suicide.German Review:Das ist ein perfektes Buch für all die Ausländer, die Albanien gleich mit Blutrache assozieren und darüber nur Vorurteile bilden. Kadare schafft es die Blutrache nicht nur als ein grausames Phänomen mit sozialen und ökonomischen Folgen darzustellen, die über Jahrhunderte hinweg das Zusammenleben der Einwohner dieser Gegenden streng geregelt hat. Er sieht es auch al seine auβergewöhnliche Erscheinung, als etwas übernatürliches, episches und groβartiges, das Albaner erfunden haben. Indem er die Blutrache mit Besa und dem Schutz für den Gast (Gastfreundlichkeit) in Beziehung setzt, betont er wie edel diese Einwohner sind, die sich für einen Fremden einsetzen und sogar sich opfern, um ihm Schutzt zu gewähren. Das ist laut Kadare einmalig auf dieser Welt. Der Gast wird fast auf das Niveau eines Gottes gestellt. Der Gast ist für Albaner ein Halbgott. Es bedarf nur ein Klopfen an der Tür um diesen Status zu erhalten. Das Ganze ist auf Besa züruckszufuehren. Besa ist für Kadare das Moral, das so vollständig ist, das es über alle staatliche Gesetzte steht. Schlieβlich wird Blutrache als etwas trauriges und tragisches dargestellt. Das Leben der Involvierten ist mehr ein Leben der Toten (Das Totenreich nennt der Autor die Gegend), die sich ein anderes normales Leben vielleicht schwer vorstellen können. Es ist ein Leben für die Ehre. Blutrache ist nichts anderes als Selbstmord.
What do You think about Broken April (2003)?
"Broken April" is a haunting story with an out of time charm. There are not many novels around with such a simple and yet powerfully evocative style. More than the plot in itself what counts here is the atmosphere Kadare is able to recreate.I actually perceived the mist and the cold as well as the brightless nights and the wind-swept landscapes where the novel takes place with an uncommon intensity.As a reader who gets easily distracted, "Broken April" meant an unusual business to me: this book never lost its grip over me from the very first to the last page.I don't know that much about Albania apart from being aware that Italian fought a useless and aggressive war there ("We will break the kidneys of Albania!" barked Mussolini back in 1939) and that the country hosted one of the most senseless dictators - even for the crazy communist standards - in the world, Enver Hoxha.For a striking majority of Italians, contemporary Albania is a God-forsaken country, a place good for ruffians, pimps, prostitutes and hosting bogus universities where our dull politicians get their fake degrees. Besides, the massive waves of desperate immigration coming from the coasts of Albania which reached Italy in the 1990s didn't help in the way our neighbours are perceived. It's true how there are Albanians involved in criminal activities in Italy, but then again it's always the bad guys who get all the news. Just like it happens with Romanians - who share a similar bad reputation in Italy and had a megalomaniac dictator too - there are thousands of good, honest, hardworking and considerate Albanian immigrants between the Alps and Sicily. But this is pretty obvious, isn't it?"Broken April" deals at the same time with backwardness and cultural heritage of Albania introducing the equally wonderful and terrifying "Kanun" an ancient code to settle arguments and controversies in the remote Albanian plateaus. A code where vengeance through family feuds under brutal but strict rules is a focal point and that reminded me quite a lot the way disputes were handled in some parts of southern Italy and Sardinia. The Albanian Kanun, however, seem to be more structured and taken more seriously by the local inhabitants than its Italian less official counterparts.This novel speaks about the Kanun and the people living (and quite often dying) according to its principles, but it's also an excellent cross-section of the Albanian mountaineers, a people able to welcome the Church and the Islam without losing most of its peculiar habits and with a fascination for towers. There is a distinct beauty in the uniqueness of "Broken April" and this quality more than compensates the slight disappointment of a plot and an ending which could have been a bit better. Not that it really matters as what makes this novel very good is not its storytelling, but where the story itself happens. This is the first book by Ismail Kadare I've ever read and most likely the first of a long series. Here we have an author who definitely has something to say and somewhere to speak about. I'd like to listen more of it.
—Lorenzo Berardi
Set in the interwar years, this haunting novel tells of an Albanian blood feud, as it affects several people: Gjorg [George], the unwilling killer of his murdered brother's killer; Bessian and Diana, a honeymooning couple who want to see the mountain area of Albania and to investigate the customs firsthand; and Mark, the "steward of the blood" [He collects what is called a "blood-tax" from a murderer's family and maintains Book of the Blood, giving details of every blood feud going back centuries]. Gjorg has a grace period or truce: bessa of thirty days before he becomes fair game for the bullet of his victim's family. Should a member of the victim's family kill Gjorg, this will restore their honor. Gjorg's story was the most fascinating--the murder, what he does in his time of reprieve, and his final shocking though inevitable fate. I felt Bessian was only a mouthpiece to explain the Kanun, the rigid set of laws governing every aspect of life and death of the mountain folk. Diana represented an outsider's view of the culture and Mark represented officialdom upholding the Kanun. This was a glimpse into a violent, brutal culture. Remote Albania still lives under its tenets in the present. The simple, unvarnished style made it readable in a short time for me. This dark short novel is a good introduction to Kadare. Dec. 27, 2014--I've recently viewed "Beneath the sun", a 2001 Brazilian movie with setting changed from Albania [the novel] to rural Brazil, but with the same theme of blood feud. I did reread and it was just as good the second time.
—Jane
In the High Plateau of Albania, the old Code of the Kanun still rules the land. The blood feud. It's centuries old, but it's the way things have always been done and it's the way most would like them to remain. It's more than just tradition- it's also their economic system. Everything is ruled by the Kanun. Gjorg has just avenged his brother's death and has thirty days until the family can avenge the life he took. During his travels to pay the blood debt, his path crosses Bessian and Diane's, two outlanders who are traveling the High Plateau on their honeymoon. They don't speak, but Diane is deeply affected by seeing Gjorg and realizing his future. This was an interesting story, and I was less mesmerized by the storytelling than some of the critics reported to be. There was a compelling element to the narration, though, and the story moved along quickly. It is something to think about- are the old ways, which seem barbaric to outsiders, really so detrimental to those who continue to live in that culture? Kardare doesn't make any judgments, but presents differing perspectives. I have never heard of the Kanun before and find it fascinating, especially the idea of hospitality, that a guest is temporarily on the level of a demi-god. Food: funky cheese. It's been created by time-honored methods and is representative of a different culture- but do I like it?
—Maryann
