March Translated Fiction Book Club, at Heffers Book Shop

In celebration of the International Booker Prize Longlist announcement, our Translated Fiction Book Club will be reading She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel: a dark and poetic novel about identity, gender, love, freedom, and societal norms set in the Albanian mountains. Come along to the secondhand department with yourself and your thoughts, and we’ll be ready with tea and biscuits.

Bridging genres and form and revolving around a woman in a remote Albanian mountain village who renounces her sex to escape a forced marriage, She Who Remains is a haunting exploration of agency, identity and truth caught in the teeth of ancient patriarchal laws.

High in the Accursed Mountains, in a village ruled by the ancient laws of the Kanun, Bekija escapes an arranged marriage by becoming a sworn virgin, renouncing her womanhood to live as a man. Her decision sets off a brutal chain of events, destroying her family and separating her from the one she loves the most.

Years later, as Bekija - now Matija - tells their story to a visiting journalist, long-buried truths come to light, along with the realization of all that might have been.

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