Book Review - She Who Remains
I first encountered the archaic rite of the “sworn virgin” in Albanian writer Elvira Dones’s titular novel, published in Clarissa Botsford’s English translation from Italian in 2014. The custom allows a woman to publicly vow never to marry or have children, gaining the respect and freedoms — chiefly work and the right to own land — otherwise reserved for men in a patriarchal society.
In Bulgarian writer Rene Karabash’s hypnotic debut novel, She Who Remains, nimbly translated by Izidora Angel and shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize, a woman takes the oath to escape an arranged marriage. Karabash (born Irena Ivanova) is also a poet, screenwriter and playwright and these skills are evident in a work that defies neat classification.
Honour is a suffocating force in the remote village in the Accursed Mountains of northern Albaniawhere Bekija is raised. Bekija, whose name means “she who survives, she who remains alive, she who saves herself”, lost her twin brother in her mother’s womb. Aware that her father had wished his son had survived instead — “mothers here get pregnant in the hope of bearing boys so they don’t bring shame to the family” — she has spent her childhood taking on men’s work, and striving to become a “daddy’s boy”.
Bordering eastern Montenegro and western Kosovo, the region is governed by the ancient laws of the Kanun, which permeate all aspects of family life, from marriage to property. “[A] lot of men die here because of those blood feuds, the blood tax, everything revolves around the Kanun,” Bekija tells a visiting journalist who interviews her 16 years later about becoming a sworn virgin.
Bekija, aged 17 when her father claims she is of “of marrying age”, refuses a forced marriage to Nemanja, a local man “from a good family” who is deemed ugly, asking herself, “Am I getting married or getting buried?” and renouncing her womanhood. Her broken marriage contract provokes a blood feud, and she is faced with choosing a male member of her own family to be killed so that Nemanja can “reclaim his honour.” She gives the nominated black armband to her younger brother Sále, who flees to Bulgaria, leaving her father, Murash, as Nemanja’s target.
With her family destroyed, Bekija becomes Matija, living alone and dressing as a man. While recounting her story to the journalist, she uncovers unread letters from Sále, revealing past lies and her forbidden love for Dhana, the great granddaughter of a neighbour who spent summers in the village.
Written as a stream-of-consciousness, without capitalisation or quotation marks, She Who Remains unfolds like a confession. It opens boldly with the murder of Murash rendered in stark lyrical prose. Karabash circles around incidents, her vivid imagery and recurring motifs lending the narrative a fairytale quality while exposing the reality for women in this harsh world, where they are repeatedly dehumanised, treated — or sold — like livestock. Women at a funeral are described as “black headscarves . . . like a swarm of ants”, while the unmasculine Sále is derided as gevşek (weakling). Dreams and fragments of poetry are interwoven through the story adding to its hallucinatory, shifting sense of reality.
Originally published in Bulgaria in 2018, She Who Remains won the prestigious Elias Canetti Prize in 2019, and the author’s film adaptation is due to be released later this year. Same-sex marriage remains constitutionally banned in Bulgaria, giving a political edge to Karabash’s exploration of a woman’s emotional life. This propulsive read is a worthy contender for the International Booker crown.