She Who Remains

She Who Remains, Rene Karabash’s landmark Bulgarian queer novel, secrets readers into a rural Albanian village where, to this day, the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini—a collection of archaic laws—looms over the lives of villagers with the same haunting presence of the surrounding mountains.

Bekija, painfully aware of why she cannot have what she most wants, chooses to become a “sworn virgin,” setting off a bloody and heartbreaking chain of events that shatters a family and destroys a cherished relationship, but also reveals how trauma can lead to vital, if uncomfortable, truths.

Karabash’s poetic stream of consciousness traces gender evolution with innovative grace.