Witty Reviews: Broken April

Continuing on my literary journey through Albania, a friend gave me a copy of Broken April by Ismail Kadare—an iconic Albanian author. Broken April follows Gjorg, a man caught up in an ancient family blood feud. It’s a book that teaches you about the history and practical “logic” of a blood feud, a cultural anomaly across the country but found more prominently in the north. The second part of the book introduces a newly married couple who find themselves in the thick of blood-feud country as outsiders looking in, playing the role of the reader, in a sense.

The opening of this book is fantastic. Gjorg shoots a man in cold blood, sealing his fate as a wanted man in a long line of wanted men in his and the opposing family. We learn, through ritual, that this is a calculated, planned, and expected killing, which sets off a chain of events that seems to surprise no one.

You feel sorry for Gjorg. He has had this target on his head since birth that he seemed destined never to escape and, as expected, his destiny is to be fulfilled. Following his journey taught me so much about blood feuds in Albania by simply showing me what he goes through, as well as the conversations he has with his family about what is expected of him at each stage of his abridged life.

Then we come to Bessian and Diana, the newlyweds on their honeymoon. My issue with their chapters was that I felt it was mostly info-dumping. But not only this, it was info-dumping on information I’d already learned from Gjorg’s experiences. It was the "layman's version" of blood feuds; it was Bessian chewing Diana’s ear off by telling her everything he knew about the practice.

For me, those chapters slowed the book, and I wanted to get back to Gjorg. Diana actually lays eyes on Gjorg for a few moments and then develops a strange obsession with him, which felt a bit… forced? She becomes almost possessed by him and wants to find him, which didn’t feel natural to the story. I would have much rather just followed Gjorg’s journey and remained in his head for the whole book. That being said, Bessian and Diana do meet the blood-feud advisor, who was a cool character. He travels the country to settle disputes between families. If there is any confusion with the rules, or a technicality that needs to be settled, Ali Binak is the man.

In all, the book taught me a lot about the Kanun—the ancient and rigid law of the blood feud. There were some great characters in Gjorg and Ali Binak, but I could easily have read a different version of this book where we just sit with Gjorg for its entirety. If you want to learn more about these old Albanian traditions, this is the book for you.