"Broken April" by Ismail Kadare

An exotic setting that unfortunately ends up in a grim, gray slog of a novel, in which no one wins.


This story deals at great length with the blood fueds which hold Albania back from meaningful progress. We meet an author who glorifies these conflicts in his work, but he lives to suffer because of it. This book became quite early a heavy chore to pick up and read, and normally I would put something like this back down. I kept reading, though, to the bitter end. There are those who apparently admire it, but not me.