I thought I was reading a Dystopian novel for at least the first two chapters. The kind where society has fallen and some sort of brutal code of ethics has taken the place of democratic processes in order to keep society itself from falling into an even more harmful anarchy. No, this is real life for the people on the “High Plateau” of Northern Albania. They called themselves “Mountaineers” because they live in the high mountainous regions where the city folk of Albania hardly ever venture. They hold onto harsh laws that were supposedly written centuries ago that even lay out the correct way to murder someone. It’s completely legal as long as you follow the honor laws, which include laying the dead man on his back and placing his rifle near his head after you kill him. It also transforms all guests and travelers into Demi-gods who deserve your protection and not just hospitality, but servitude. Did I mention that this is a REAL place? Honestly I was thinking surely this is just a novelization of legend and myth. After some research (a quick google and skim of wikipedia) I found that this is literally still taking place! It has been mostly wiped out, but some of the tribes and villages are still following the laws of “kanun”.
This novel is set around the kanun’s laws on “blood-feuds”. Basically if someone from family A kills someone from family B, it is the duty of Family B to go kill someone in Family A. Of course then Family A can then legally go kill another person in Family B and it literally goes on like this for centuries until all male members of the family are dead. The man in charge of keeping up with all blood feuds in the land, the steward of the blood, claims,”The men of the High Plateau themselves […] played with death as if they were playing a game on Sunday”. The setting is haunting; a land of mist and death. It tells the story of Gjorg who is involved in his family’s blood feud. He is trapped in this system because of laws written hundreds of years ago and a feud that started before his father was even born. Once Gjorg does his duty to his brother’s killer, he gets a traditional 30 day truce so he can put his affairs in order (they aren’t barbarians). This means in mid-April its open season on Gjorg. It also tells of a honeymooning couple, city-dwellers, who come to experience the mystery of the high plateau. Ismail Kadare writes these contrasting characters into the same eerie landscapes giving the reader different perspectives of the daunting mountain people. This beautifully written novel opens doors into the strangeness of eastern Europe; the tension between the past and the modern age.
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