Broken April
  • Published: 15 November 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099449874
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $35.00

Broken April

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'By any standard this is a considerable novel' Sunday Telegraph

From the moment that Gjorg's brother is killed by a neighbour, his own life is forfeit: for the code of Kanun requires Gjorg to kill his brother's murderer and then in turn be hunted down. After shooting his brother's killer, young Gjorg is entitled to thirty days' grace - not enough to see out the month of April.

Then a visiting honeymoon couple cross the path of the fugitive. The bride's heart goes out to Gjorg, and even these 'civilised' strangers from the city risk becoming embroiled in the fatal mechanism of vendetta.
  • Published: 15 November 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099449874
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $35.00
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About the author

Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare is Albania’s best-known novelist and poet. Translations of his novels have appeared in more than forty countries. He was awarded the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2015.

Also by Ismail Kadare

A Dictator Calls
The Doll
The Traitor's Niche
A Girl in Exile
The Three-Arched Bridge
The Concert
Three Elegies For Kosovo
See all

Praise for Broken April

Broken April, a haunting account of the paroxism of the vendetta in northern Albania between the wars, is one of the twin peaks of Kadare's career

Observer

The story is plain, the telling plainer, yet the overall effect is mysterious and elusive as only a fable can be

Guardian

With Broken April Mr Kadare comes to the forefront as a major international novelist

New York Times

His work is as immense as Balzac's, as unrelenting in its critique of dictatorship as Orwell's, and as disturbingly fantastical as Kafka's. It is an invention as well as a reflection of what it means to be Albanian, and an exploration of both the ugliness and the dignity of a small, ancient, oppressed nation. Kadare is perhaps the last 'national writer' of European history

Independent

Forcefully and simply written...completely authentic

Sunday Times