Don’t let the slim page count fool you. She Who Remains by Rene Karabash is the kind of short book that asks a little bit more patience from you and pays it back with beautiful writing and deep meaning.

This is a story about being queer in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, it’s a story about tradition itself, and the way rigid, inherited customs can press ordinary people into the role of victim. It is set high in the Albanian mountains, in a village still ruled by the Kanun, an ancient code of honor and law that governs how people live, marry, and die. A young woman named Bekija wants to escape an arranged marriage, so she makes a drastic choice. She becomes a “sworn virgin,” taking a vow that lets her shed her identity as a woman and live as a man under a new name. It’s a Balkan tradition, and Karabash uses it as a doorway into something much larger.

She Who Remains was a challenging read for me, specifically the structure of the plot. The timeline jumps around, and I often couldn’t tell where I was meant to sit. Events surface out of order. Memories stack on top of other memories. If you’re a reader who likes a clear plot with tidy signposts, this book will test your patience because it certainly tested mine.

Underneath all of that confusion lies the part I loved most. The writing style is adorable: poetic and, sometime, rhythmic. Even in the moments when I completely lost the thread of the plot, the language kept me reading anyway. This reading experience turned this as a difficult book into one that felt worth the effort.

A quick word on the translation, because it earns one. Izidora Angel carried this over from the original Bulgarian, and the prose flows so naturally in English that you forget you’re reading a translated work at all. Given how poetic and fragmented the writing is, that’s no small feat, and it’s a big reason the book landed on the International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist.

My Favorite Bits

• Truth or dare? Back then, we thought the weaker always chose truth because they were afraid of being bold. I realize now that picking truth was always the braver choice. Dare was for the liars, the cowards who masked themselves behind their bravery. For those who preferred to jump in the river, to run away, or to kill instead of telling the truth.

• am I dying or being born

• shade is shade, you notice it only when you need its shelter or when it stands in your way

• this is what happens when you think your life is worth more than the lives of others when you realize you were the worm inside the apple all along and you’ve been rotting ever since, and all the apples around you have been rotting too

• home is where they clip your wings

• I think about how it’s always easier to offer someone tea rather than to discuss the things that truly matter, tea is easier than challenging life and coming to terms with the fact that you’re not as strong as you make yourself out to be

• you are not to blame for the fact you were born a woman there’s one thing a person can’t be guilty of, and that is of having been born

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Author: Rene Karabash
First publication date: 1 January 2018
Number of pages: 155 pages

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