Sworn Virgin
SynopsisPlot
When Hana’s dying uncle calls her back from the city to the family home in the Albanian mountains, he tries to marry her to a local man who could run the household. Unable to accept the arranged marriage and determined to remain independent, Hana’s only option is to follow tradition and vow to live the rest of her life in chastity as a man – and so Hana becomes Mark. For a sworn virgin, there is no way back. Years later, Mark – now a raki-drinking, chain-smoking shepherd – receives an invitation to join a cousin in the US. This may be Mark’s only chance to escape his vow. But what does he know about being an American woman?
Story
About this book
In the northern Albanian mountains, a tradition known as the sworn virgin allows a woman to take on the social role of a man. The exchange is binding: she cuts her hair, wears male clothing, and swears a permanent vow of celibacy. In return she gains freedoms otherwise reserved for men in a strongly patriarchal society.
Elvira Dones builds her novel around this custom. Hana is called back from the city to her family home in the mountains when her uncle is dying. He tries to arrange her marriage to a local man who could run the household. Determined to stay independent, Hana takes the vow instead and becomes Mark. For a sworn virgin, tradition offers no way back.
Years later Mark lives as a raki-drinking, chain-smoking shepherd, when a cousin in the United States sends an invitation. Leaving Albania raises a question the vow never allowed: what would it mean to live as a woman again, in a country where the old mountain code carries no weight? The novel holds gender, migration, and belonging together as forms of displacement.
