The Sworn Virgin

A Novel

By: Kristopher Dukes

Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik

Dukes' gripping historical novel tells the tale of a desperate Albanian woman who will do whatever it takes to keep her independence and seize control of her future...even if it means swearing to remain a virgin for her entire life.

When 18-year-old Eleanora's father is shot dead on the cobblestone streets of 1910 Albania, Eleanora must abandon her dream of studying art in Italy as she struggles to survive in a remote mountain village with her stepmother, Meria.

Nearing starvation, Meria secretly sells Eleanora into marriage with the cruel heir of a powerful clan. Intent on keeping her freedom, Eleanora takes an oath to remain a virgin for the rest of her life - a tradition that gives her the right to live as a man: She is now head of her household and can work for a living as well as carry a gun. Eleanora can also participate in the vengeful blood feuds that consume the mountain tribes, but she may not be killed - unless she forsakes her vow, which she has no intention of ever doing.

But when an injured stranger stumbles into her life, Eleanora nurses him back to health, saving his life - yet risking her own as she falls in love with him....

©2017 Kristopher Dukes, LLC (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Not worth finishing

Started out beautifully with a rich culture and wonderful description, but the main character was whiny, narcissistic and wishy-washy. I couldn't empathize with her or any other character after the first part of the book. I kept going hoping it would get better, but jen it just abruptly ended after she changed her mind for the 100th time.

About a culture I’ve never heard of, but story lags

The story appears to be the tale of an Albanian Sworn Virgin. I had never heard of this phenomenon, maybe because when I was in college Albania was behind the Iron Curtain? This is an amazing, but dying, tradition. If a woman didn’t want to follow the traditional role in which she basically was her father’s property until she married and her husbands after that, she could swear before a group of men to remain a virgin all her life and live as a man - although as sort of a societal outcast. She would be treated the same way a man would, dress like a man and live like a man. This gave her the ability to have the same privileges a man had but a woman was denied. I did an Internet search about them and it’s fascinating.

The main character chooses to become a sworn virgin so as to escape marriage with a brute. It wasn’t a decision made with thought and foresight. For a while this works for her, although she has no empathy for her stepmother, who set up the arranged marriage for her after her father died because she wanted to help them both. Eleanora can’t see that her stepmother, who’d been raised to be ignorant and naive, really had her best interest at heart She also underestimated the way a woman can react if treated poorly.

Granted, Eleanora didn’t choose her fate out of true free will, but she fails as s human being. She waffles back and forth between acting as a man and acting as a woman when she befriends and saves the life of a strange man.

Ultimately, and unsurprisingly, she breaks her vow. After this, I had to force myself to listen to the rest of the book. I suppose I kept listening because I was hoping that she would have an epiphany and join up with another sworn virgin she’d met, or just go off and create her own life as a man.

The tale is believable. It teaches us about a vanishing way of life. And it’s a real bummer to listen to

Never an un-dull moment

The story of a woman struck by tragedy and revenge I understand, but this story was such a drag on "My Soul". I listened to the entire book, so it wasn't the worst book in the world, but I am so glad it's over. The narrator didn't do male voices very well, but the young girl was fine. I don't remember the setting (country) nor the time (century) if it was ever even mentioned. I would have liked to know that, but I believe it to be somewhere near the early 1900's and in Turkey, but I could be mistaken. I feel as if it could have had more meat if it were to be written in more modern day and her actions had changed the face of male bigotry, but it did nothing of the sort.