Broken April charts the final days of protagonist Gjorg Berisha, as he awaits vengeance in a brutal blood feud. Set in the mountainous region of northern Albania in the 1930s, Broken April chronicles life under the Kanun, the real-life code of laws which has influenced the way of life in the region for centuries. Covering everything from marriage ceremonies to agriculture to blood feuds, the Kanun is a vast and unique legal document which might seem strange and punitive to readers.
The novel begins on March 17 as Gjorg waits to kill a man named Zef Kryeqyqe. The Berisha and Kryeqyqe families have been in a blood feud for over seventy years, and have each lost over twenty family members in the bloodshed. A year and a half before the action of the novel, Gjorg's brother Mehill was killed by Zef, leaving Gjorg avenge his death. While Gjorg questions the hateful and destructive nature of the blood feuds, he is afraid of the social repercussions that would follow if he refused to avenge his brother's death. Gjorg spots Zef in the distance and shoots him.
According to local custom, Gjorg is granted a bessa or a 30-day period until the Kryeqyqe family can seek vengeance against him. During this time, he journeys to the Kulla of Orosh–the Prince's castle–in order to pay the tax required after each killing. Along the way, Gjorg contemplates the power of the Kanun and his impending death.
On the way back from the Kulla of Orosh, Gjorg sees Diana in a carriage with her new husband, Bessian. Diana and Bessian, aristocrats from the urban centre of Tirana, are spending their honeymoon in the High Plateau region where Gjorg and his family live. Bessian is a writer who has an idealized and romanticized view of the Kanun and of the blood feuds. Bessian has brought Diana to the High Plateau in order to teach her about the local culture and to experience the famed local hospitality. At first, Diana is fearful of the local culture and resents Bessian for bringing her on the trip, but after she sees Gjorg and falls in love, she begins to understand and admire the way of life in the High Plateau.
For the remainder of the book, Gjorg tries in vain to find Diana again. As Bessian and Diana leave the High Plateau in their carriage with their marriage in ruins, Gjorg's bessa expires. While he desperately searches for the carriage, he is shot by an unnamed member of the Kryeqyqe family and the novel ends as he nears death.
Broken April is a tragic and moving examination of fate, justice, and love. While Kadaré focuses on a culture specific to a small region of Albania, he succeeds in addressing themes universal to all of humanity. For a novel of just over 200 pages, Broken April is a work of remarkable depth, imagination, and resonance into the present day.
