Albania
232
Canosinaj, Viktor (text)
Ēela, Arben (illus.) Meriyll
<proper name>
Tiranė : Andersen, 2000. - 233 p.
(Biblioteka e fėmijėve dhe tė rinjve)
ISBN 99927-650-6-2
Mother - Daughter - Death - Father - Alcoholism - Friendship
In his new novel, Viktor Canosinaj, who won the Albanian Youth Literature
Award in 1996, describes the life of thirteen-year-old Meriyll. After her mother's
death, she has to take care of her younger siblings and organise the housekeeping.
When, on top of everything, her father loses his job, he falls into deep despair
and starts drinking. The family hardly know how to survive and her new role
often asks too much of Meriyll. She only just manages to escape being kidnapped
and taken to Greece where she would have been sold into prostitution, while
her brother joins a gang of children. Only with the aid and love of her friend
and classmate Sidrit, does Meriyll finally find a way back to normality for
herself and her family. (12+)