The Albanian Book Club

Adela Lasku

They say a good book can take you places you've never been. Our last one took us to Shkodër.

When we started the ALSA Albanian book club, the aim was to get more comfortable with reading and speaking in Albanian, and to learn about Albanian history and literature. Bardha e Temalit by Pashko Vasa, the first ever novel written by an Albanian author, felt like the perfect choice to incorporate history, culture and tradition into our conversations, whilst learning new phrases in Albanian. As we overanalysed Arad's choices and pondered upon Bardha's fate in our weekly video calls, we couldn't help but long for a stroll down Shkodra's pedonale and a view from the Rozafa castle. As it usually happens with ALSA, once you make a wish, the plans fall into place.

A flight to Tirana and a shuttle bus to Shkoder later, we found ourselves in front of cinema Republika. Our first stop was the Rozafa castle. Its breathtaking views and fascinating legend accompanied our walks across ancient ruins, whilst the Buna River followed us all the way back to the city centre. A stroll down the main pedonale revealed Shkodra's amazing culinary culture and aesthetic cafés. A visit to the Marubi museum took us back in time, when women would embroider under candlelight and dictators would photoshop enemies out of historic pictures. The church bells mixed with the mosque’s call to prayer as our never-ending conversations moved from one street vendor to the next. We could not leave without paying a visit to Migjeni's house (Our next book club pick? Who knows!), before heading back to Tirana.

It is safe to say that we achieved our aim from this book and by visiting the city where the story took place. However, unknowingly the conversations we had and the stories we shared taught us even more about the beauty of our culture and its diversity. As we left Bardha back in Temal, we immediately started planning our next call, eager to find out where our next book would take us.