[2] Gjorg Berisha, a 26-year-old Albanian man living on the country's high plateau,[3] is forced to commit a murder under the laws of the Kanun to avenge his brother.

[4][5] Reading "Broken April", it is easy to understand why and with what strength Ismail Kadare is passionate about tragedy and its two most prominent representatives, Shakespeare and Aeschylus.

The New York Times, reviewing it, wrote: "Broken April is written with masterly simplicity in a bardic style, as if the author is saying: Sit quietly and let me recite a terrible story about a blood feud and the inevitability of death by gunfire in my country.

Insults must be avenged; family honor must be upheld...."[7] The Wall Street Journal declared Kadare "one of the most compelling novelists now writing in any language.

"[8] Reading "Broken April", it is easy to understand why and with what strength Ismail Kadare is passionate about tragedy and its two most prominent representatives, Shakespeare and Aeschylus.