Novel
Gjarpijt e gjakut
Not translated into English
Adem Demaçi · 1958
Synopsis
A children's quarrel, in which Ajet strikes Elez from behind, gives rise to a blood feud between two Albanian families of Kosovo, but the fathers, Sejdi and Abaz, become friends. Later, a rejected marriage proposal revives the feud: Emin Malok judges the family's honour offended and wants Sejdi's family to pay in blood, while Mustafa, in whom the author is seen, seeks reconciliation.
Context
Written at twenty-two, the novel appeared in 1958 in two instalments of Jeta e re, then in volume form, and made its author famous. The critic Hasan Mekuli praised its originality, its refusal of conventions and the variety of its language. Lulëzim Etemaj reads in it in 2022 an unappealable condemnation of the vendetta and a call for unity. A German translation appeared in 1995 under the title Die Schlangen des Blutes.
Who it is for
For reading the novel that made the fight against the vendetta a great cause of the Albanian literature of Kosovo.
Prizes and reception
The Modern Novel sees in it a fascinating look at a culture foreign to Westerners, told almost like a fable.
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