“That was us, and the ritual of reconciliation between our souls could not be described more beautifully-late at night and early in the morning, when the hands leave their clocks and time is nothing but a detail, a blemish on the visage of a planet whose very rotation you make me question any time I gaze into your eyes.”
– Rene Karabash, She Who Remains (p.146)
She Who Remains is a book that combines what a normal novel should look like and a poetry collection that flows cleanly and tells a beautiful story. The novel follows a woman born into a patriarchal society who struggles to live with her own identity. The book explores what it means to live by this identity and the repercussions that follow the decision.
Set in a rural Albanian village, the story follows Bekija—later known as Matija—a girl who is born unwanted by her father. She escapes an arranged marriage by becoming a sworn virgin, a loophole provided by the Kanun. This however triggers a blood feud demanding that a male family member be killed by the groom’s family. Bekija initially chooses her brother, Sále, but he escapes fearing his life. Having always felt suffocated by the masculine expectations put on to him by his father, this death sentence finally triggers his flight. Following his brother’s escape, his father is killed instead.
The novel reveals Bekija’s escape from the arranged marriage is fundamentally tied to her identity. A strict prerequisite of the marriage is that she must be a virgin, however she cannot meet this demand. Bekija is secretly in love with Dhana, another woman.
The frequently repeated phrase “daddy’s boy”, reflects her deep longing to fulfill her family’s expectations by becoming a son. His father Murash often ignores his two children, he projects the societal expectations and norms of the Kanun — an archaic law practiced in rural Albania — to his children. Ultimately, the novel tells us how the constraints put in place by the Kanun mirror modern culture, where heavy societal expectations on sexuality and traditional gender roles of masculinity and femininity still persist.
The story tackles how modern expectations and norms we live in today are similar to the Kanun. The story told by Matija is not one of archaic times, but a reflection of how the societal expectations of today are still present in many parts of the world. These expectations still exist today, destroying the lives of people around the world.
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