
The Sworn Virgin
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Barrie Kreinik
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By:
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Kristopher Dukes
About this listen
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 PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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No dreaming, No painting, No thinking . . .
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Not worth finishing
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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
About a culture I’ve never heard of, but story lags
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Never an un-dull moment
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