Ana Fletcher (looking lovely above) has written this Editor’s Note for Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones, translated by Clarissa Botsford: 

When the manuscript for Elvira Dones’ Sworn Virgin, in Clarissa Botsford’s translation, landed on our desks, a buzz went round the team. The subject matter is immediately gripping: young Albanian mountain woman takes a vow of chastity and lives as a man for fifteen years, then breaks vow and emigrates to the US, where she must learn to live as a woman again. But could the writer really have done it justice? We needn’t have worried. Elvira Dones handles the topic with masterly care. She rejects all traces of sensationalism or showiness, choosing instead to just get on with telling us the protagonist’s incredible story.

With Dones’ straightforward style comes an absolute dedication to emotional honesty – and it was this that really cinched it for us. Sworn Virgin is a page-turner without any of the throwaway associations that term carries; Hana’s story stayed with us long after we first read it. This an important book, and one we’re proud to have published.

Ana initially wrote a similar ‘Piece of Passion’ for lovereading.co.uk here – where you can also read their great review, which calls Sworn Virgin ‘provocative, engaging and absolutely fascinating’.