A hard-hitting parable about the conflicts that have ravaged the Balkan states, by Albania’s most influential novelist. When the construction of a bridge built to link the Balkans to Europe is repeatedly and mysteriously sabotaged, an old ballad starts making the rounds at local taverns.The bards sing of a legend – a woman immured in a castle wall to prevent it from falling.Some say the bridge is being damaged by local ferrymen, others blame the vengeful water spirits.But this is a town where terror and superstition reign and a solution must be reached.So it is decreed: a willing person must be plastered into the bridge…‘A vivid, macabre and wise novel’ New York Times