A Cursed Life

Alida is from the mountains of northern Albania, where she grows up with her family: her father, her mother, and two twin sisters.

The book is set in the historical period of Enver Oxa, but in the northern countryside of Albania people are raised and live according to the rules of Lek Dukagjin’s Kanun. Alida’s father falls victim to a revenge sanctioned by the Kanun: a bullet in the back, which causes a severe injury and makes him lose the use of his legs. This given, one of his daughters has to become a Burrnesh, or ‘Sworn Virgin’: a man. The chosen one is Alida, who is forced by her mother to undergo a transformation that makes her lose her life as a woman. Such operation follows an archaic ritual in which any aspects of womanhood are erased in front of the leaders of the Twelve Clans, and it is her own mother to perform it: she cuts Alida’s hair very short, she binds her breasts until they disappear, and then Alida has to wear her father’s clothes. Alida is now allowed to drink, smoke, and handle weapons as if she really were man, since the ritual and her vow of chastity have transformed her into a man—on the surface. And she will actually deal with all male typical duties, but never giving up her femininity, or the desire to become a mother. It thus begins an incredible journey that will bring her to the United States, where Alida will be reborn and become again the woman she was. (Translated to English from Italian.)