She Who Remains, a novel by Rene Karabash about the ancient Albanian custom of “sworn virgins,” put Bulgarian literature in the spotlight as a contender for the International Booker Prize. From BIRN.
Before the judges announced the winner of this year’s International Booker Prize on 19 May, Rene Karabash recalls grappling with “a whirlwind of emotions.”
On the phone from London, Karabash told BIRN that “the fact that we’re here at all, at this World Cup of literature, is a success of its own. The biggest award is this immense love from the readers that’s pouring in from everywhere,” she said as enthusiastic reactions and Bulgarian flag emojis filled the comments section of the Booker award stream before the announcement.
The prize went to Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue at the ceremony in the UK, but the success of Karabash’s shortlisted novel She Who Remains has focused new attention on Bulgarian literature.
The International Booker Prize is given annually to a novel or collection of stories translated into English. Karabash’s She Who Remains, set in rural Albania, brought an unusual topic to the shortlist.
The book’s plot is inspired by the centuries-old tradition of so-called “sworn virgins,” or oath-virgins, Burrnesha in Albanian, who took a vow of chastity and then spent the rest of their lives socially recognized as men, while giving up feminine attire, lifestyle, and appearance.
The practice derives partly from the so-called Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, the medieval Albanian law code transmitted orally across generations. This allowed a woman to assume leadership of a household on the death of its patriarchal leader, a circumstance frequently brought by blood feuds among clans.
The fading tradition was still being observed throughout the 20th century, which means that a handful of “sworn virgins” remain among the living. According to the Booker committee, the novel talks about the subject with “understated poetry” and “captures the slippery uncertainty of painful memories.”
The phenomenon of sworn virgins is unknown in Bulgaria, which makes it curious that a Bulgarian writer has written a high-profile book on the subject, while a Bulgarian photographer earlier brought international attention back to the subject.
Pepa Hristova compiled a photobook and an exhibition on surviving “sworn virgins” following trips to northern Albania between 2008 and 2010.
It was Hristova’s work that brought the subject to Karabash’s attention.
“After I came across Hristova’s photography, there was this two-year period where I was researching this piece of history and trying to connect [it to] some aspects to my own background, as I grew up in a village and certain elements of the story felt familiar,” she explains. “Then I wrote the novel in not more than two months.”
Karabash, real name Irena Ivanova, was born in 1989 in the small town of Lovech. Her literary debut came in 2015 with a poetry book. She Who Remains followed in 2018. Although it was quickly recognized in Bulgaria, the Booker Prize nomination has brought a whole new level of attention to the English version, translated by the Bulgarian-born, U.S.-based writer Izidora Angel.
“The novel was well received at home when it came out but wasn’t the bestseller it is now: it didn’t click with audiences in that massive way before, maybe because it’s written in a fragmented, stream-of-consciousness way that might not be for everybody – although I wholeheartedly believe that everybody can find something valuable in the story and get emotionally touched by it,” Karabash says.
The novel has now been translated into over 25 languages, with the French translation from 2023 winning the French PEN Award. Publications in Germany, Ukraine, Armenia, South Korea, China, and Brazil are upcoming, as well as three different translations for the Indian market. An Albanian-language edition is also imminent, marking a full circle for the book.
“I do get a lot of messages from Albanian people noticing what’s going on and being thankful that part of their history is in the spotlight,” Karabash says.
She Who Remains is also to be adapted into a movie by acclaimed Bulgarian director Kostadin Bonev, with Albania and Romania among the co-producing countries. The project is in the post-production phase.
Bulgaria’s Cultural Rise
For Bulgaria, this represents a fresh, striking literary success within a short time span. In 2023, the International Booker Prize was won by another Bulgarian writer, Georgi Gospodinov, and U.S.-born translator from Bulgarian to English Angela Rodel, for the novel Time Shelter.
Like She Who Remains, this was originally published in Bulgarian by the Janet 45 publishing house and then internationally promoted by the Sofia Literary Agency.
Karabash was the only Balkan and indeed, Eastern European, writer nominated for the Booker this year.
Her novel was also championed by the U.K. pop star of Albanian descent Dua Lipa who featured it on her online book club. “I thought I knew everything about Albania, but it took a Bulgarian writer, a Bulgarian translator and a small British independent publisher and an international prize for me to find this story,” Lipa recently said.
There was another interesting recent case of a Bulgarian artist connecting with a story from the Western Balkans last year, when singer and model Iva Yankulova released the song “Admira – The Last Juliet of Sarajevo.”
This honored the real-life tragedy of young lovers Bosko Brkic and Admira Ismic, one a Serb, the other a Muslim, who were shot dead in May 1993 during Bosnia’s 1992–1995 war.
“I’m not sure why local artists are reaching out more to the Balkans, but we know that the whole region has a bit of a collective trauma going on and maybe we can compare it to a family that had many internal conflicts but it’s now rising above them,” Karabash observes.
“Maybe we have a bit of a patriarchal attitude to bigger powers, if we have to get psychological about it, like we don’t feel like we have to engage with other cultures that also feel somehow small and repressed.
“I was recently promoting the book in Thessaloniki, where the subject about why we know so much about faraway countries but not what’s happening in neighboring countries came up again,” she recalls.
Karabash released a new book of poetry earlier this year. As well as being a writer, Karabash acted in the Golden Leopard-winning 2016 movie Godless, by Ralitza Petrova, and was the screenwriter behind the 2025 Bulgarian TV series We, the Waves.
International recognition of Karabash and She Who Remains has meanwhile lifted spirits in the country, coming right after Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Bangaranga,” by pop singer Dara.
Both women have put an international spotlight on Bulgarian culture and entertainment at a time of political turmoil in the country itself.
“There’s an increased international interest in Bulgarian culture, which comes as an alternative to the political news, which often is essentially negative, such as all the ‘Has a new Orban arrived?’ rhetoric,” Karabash says, referring to speculation about the foreign-policy orientation of the new government led by ex-president Rumen Radev.
“Through literature and music, and culture in general, we have the biggest asset to promote the country in a better light,” she concludes.
Svetoslav Todorov is a journalist, editor, and writer. He is currently writing for Balkan Insight, where this article originally appeared. Republished by permission.
