Lead Review
- Book: How To Be a Kosovan Bride
- Location: Kosovo, Pristina
- Author: Naomi Hamill
How to be a Kosovan Bride is constructed in short chapters, often no more than a couple of pages. All human life passed across these pages, both pain and pleasure, love and hate. Central are two women, the “Kosovan Wife” and the “Returned Girl” whose stories are firmly set against a backdrop of traditional culture, fables and the legacy of war. No-one has a name, so the reader has to focus more on the story than the character’s individuality – one young woman is a wife in a traditional role, married young, bearing children, living in a home environment and at times struggling with her place in society; the other has been rejected for marriage for now and sets off to study and write in Pristina – she is young, too, and shows a determination to study hard with an iron focus on her goal of going up in the world, on her terms.
This is still a society where the people have been under siege and are only just finding their way into modern ways after war torn years and where society is still burdened oftentimes by archaic traditions.
The stories are beautifully told and deliver wonderful insight into this little-known country. It certainly got me thinking about how little I know about Kosovo, tucked in the heart as it is of South Eastern Europe. A truly thought-provoking read that brings a culture and country to colourful and realistic life. And a charming way to discover just a little more about Kosovo.
Please wait...
