Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones

 

Sworn Virgin

Elvira Dones

Translated by Clarissa Botsford

Another book from the Storygraph Round the World challenge. This time Albania. Elvira Dones has been living in exile since 1988 after she defected whilst on a work trip to Switzerland. Since 2004 she has been resident in the USA. 

Like many Albanians, Dones writes in both Albanian and Italian. There has been a long tradition of this going back to medieval times, when Venice had a large influence in the Adriatic and Italian was the lingua franca. I suspect it was also a statement during Albania's communist era, a deliberate turning of the back on the east, and facing towards 'free' Europe.

Sworn Virgin is a novel, but based on fact. In the rural north of Albania, in the mountains, there is a strict code of conduct, the Kanun, which has been enforced for centuries. Kanun is vehemently patriarchal and dictates to such an extent what women can and can't do, that a household which does not have a man at its head can not function. As such it became necessary for Kanun to permit, under rare circumstances, a woman to 'become' a man. Such a woman must take a vow of chastity (hence the title Sworn Virgin) and from that point on lives as man, dressing and acting the part, accepted by society as a male, ans this able to earn a living, arrange marriages for 'his' family and so on.

Sworn Virgin follows Hana Doda who, finding herself without a family, becomes Mark. In Albania, Mark is almost a non-person, denied the life of a woman, and unfulfilled by the life of an ersatz man. After many years of this solitude, with everyone recognising only the mask she is forced to wear, she moves to America and begins the process of learning who she is.

Sworn Virgin is an engrossing novel, and a fresh look at the much studied topic of gender. 91/140 ★★★★☆