The Peaks of Shala

Family in Dukagjin, Albania in 1937 

The picture above is pulled from a blog post of old postcards owned by a blogger who lives in Shkodër, Albania. He says this photo helps him visualize early 20th century life the Albanian mountains, which are portrayed in The Peaks of Shala. This work was written by an Rose Wilder Lane, an American traveler, in 1922.

Here is a screenshot of the chapters within:

The Peaks of Shala has been digitized from the New York Public Library and is available here. The following is the introduction, or more so, R.W.L.'s purpose for writing the novel:

This review was found on GoodReads.com, giving some context of the time of the book as well as a description of Wilder's travels. May this be especially interesting considering she is an American female traveling towards adventure and risk in the early 20th century. Peaks of Shala on Goodreads.com

Happy Reading!

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Living in Shkodër, Albania

Living in Shkodër is a blog from 2010 written by blogger living in the town of Shkodër, a city in northwestern Albania. The posts cover a wide variety of life in Shkoder including alarming events such as a friend, who was a preacher, being murdered in a blood fued:

His uncle had killed someone some years ago.
He had taken no part in the killing, nor had he been in agreement with it.

There is also coverage of seemingly mundane every-day life accounts such his children being told they cannot play in the grass:

I asked him where we could go to play and he just laughed.
He told me that in Tirana someone was playing in a park, kicked a ball and a woman with a baby was passing, the baby got hit on the head and the child died.
therefore, there was no games allowed in the park.
And that he was employed to make sure that no-one played in the park.

Citizens from all over the world celebrate the new year - Albania is no different: video of Shkoder's New Year's celebration.

To end things, I especially blogger's posts on language, religion, and poetry. :)

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