The latest addition to my website is Adem Demaçi‘s Gjarpinjtë e gjakut [The Snakes of the Blood], the first Kosovan novel on my website. Sadly, this novel is not available in English and, as far as I can tell, there is no Kosovan novel, available in English translation. The novel is a short one and gives the account of a blood feud between two Kosovan-Albanian families in the period just before World War I. The prime reason is that Sejdi cannot come to an agreement with Emin Malok about the marriage of his daughter to Emin Malok’s son. As a result he agrees to let his daughter marry another man’s son. Emin Malok takes this as a grievous insult to his honour and vows revenge. Mustafa, Sejdi’s eldest son, who has just returned from four years nominally fighting the Turks (though, historically, he would have been fighting the Serbs) tries hard to prevent any bloodshed, while his father hopes the matter will just blow over. But Emin Malok is determined.
Would love to see a proper translation of this work some day. Just read his obit in the news paper.