Broken April

Blood feud Albanian style, a cautionary tale for intellectuals venturing into unknown territory armed with ignorance and hazy romantic notions.

This is a book you must read. It gives you a convincing picture of a completely alien culture and way of life, and death. From the opening lines it draws you deep into the deadful world of the Kanun, the ancient rituals which govern vendetta in Albania. It leads you through the corrupting influence which greedy men have had on a set of unofficial laws which, I believe must have been originally merciful in nature, set up to regulate the mass revenge killings endemic in ancient Albania. Blood money is paid to a powerful war-lord after each killing. He employs a factor to gather this money, and the factor is tormented by the problem of how to increase his lord's income from this practice so that he (the factor) can retain his position in the lord's household. Shudderingly horrifying!

This book takes you away into the Albanian highlands and immerses you in the life of a young man whose life is forever changed when he has to avenge the death of his brother. He knows that from that day on he will be hunted as well in the never ending cycle of the blood feud but he has no choice but to follow the sacred code of the Kanun.

Blood feuds have existed in many parts of the world throughout history. The USA, with its Hatfields and McCoys, is no stranger to the custom either. The practice seems to run most deeply in remote, mountainous areas where tribal societies cannot provide a universal system of justice to cover everyone. The code of the blood feud develops to handle murder cases. Nowhere (that I ever heard of) did the system evolve into such an intricate traditional code of laws as in the mountainous highlands of Albania. There, the Kanun, or Law of Lek Dukagjini spread throughout the lawless region now lying in northern Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro, a region that largely maintained its own identity and customs throughout the centuries-long period of Turkish rule, to emerge in 20th century Europe with the blood feud still flourishing.Kadare, Albania's premier writer, has written a vivid, dark novel that not only captures the details of highland Albanian life in the 1920s, but also shows the ultimate tragedy for a society that allows murder to follow murder, inexorably and unchallenged. A couple from the more urbanized, less-traditional lowlands go for their honeymoon into the highlands, riding in a horse-drawn carriage--a great luxury for the highlanders. The man, a writer, tends to romanticize the blood-soaked traditions of his country's remote regions. At the same time, Gjorg, a young highlander, who has killed a man in revenge for his brother, is given a month's truce before he in turn will become a target. He can expect a bullet at any moment after April 17, hence his April is broken into safe and dangerous parts. His fate intersects with those of the literate travellers and the book comes to its inevitable ending. For a novel that explores seldom-seen territory, written in a terse, but beautiful style, please read this book. Since the end of communism in 1991, the blood feud has returned to Albania, still largely lawless in its mountain areas. This book is no fossil.