Based around an Albanian folk tale of Constantin and Doruntine but told from the perspective of Stres, the investigating officer. It appears Doruntine has been brought back to her family home to visit her mother by her brother, Kostandin, but both women now lie dying from apparent shock of learning what made Doruntine’s trip so strange. Kostandin, along with his eight brothers, had been dead for three years. So did Kostandin really rise from the grave to fulfil a promise to his mother or did someone perpetrate this act of falsehood that is leading to the death of two women and if so, who would do such an ungodly act? It's up to Stres to find out what really happened before either the Prince or the Archbishop permanently removes him from his office.

This is an interesting take on a Middle Ages mystery story that includes political and religious overtones with the Catholic & Orthodox churches vying for supremacy within Albania at the time of the story. This tale has gone through a few revisions since its original release. Translated into French and from there into English with a revised and updated edition being released when Kadare was freer to express his true vision. This edition uses the original English translation plus the later additions along with a couple of authorised minor alterations to aid the coherence of the story. I’m glad to have read it but not over fond of the ending and doubt it’s one I’ll ever go back to. ( )

Originally published in Albanian in 1980 as Doruntine, Canongate published an English translation of Kadare's novel as The Ghost Rider in 2010. It is a revisioning of an old Albanian folk tale "The Ballad of Constantine and and Doruntine," about a dead brother who rises from the grave to fulfill a promise to his mother to bring his sister home from the distant land into which she has married. In his introduction, David Bellos explains that Kadare wrote the novel in the late 1970s under the isolated Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha. He suggests that the brother Kostandin is representative of resistance and dissidence, but in my lack of knowledge of Albanian culture and history, I found that connection difficult to make. The tale is told from the viewpoint of a detective tasked with figuring out who actually brought Doruntine home to her mother, presssured by a high church official to prove that Kostandin could not have risen from his grave. His rational approach is tested to the limits. Kadare is an intriguing and lyrical writer, but I found the ending of this novel rather unsettling and unsatisfying. Still -- an interesting look into Albanian culture. ( )

[[Ismail Kadare]] would be my first, second, and third choice for the Nobel prize in literature. He can bring the past into the present, making it seem as real as today. He can bring the history and politics of his native Albania to life, even when caution is required. Best of all, his writing is completely immersive; the outside world ceases to exist when reading one of his novels.

The story of Doruntine is an old Albanian legend. Doruntine was a beautiful young woman with nine brothers. Tradition had held that girls married within easy visiting distance of their families. However, Doruntine married a man from far away, at least two weeks' ride to the west, in Bohemia. Her mother and eight of her brothers opposed the marriage, based on distance. The ninth brother, Constantine, insisted on the wedding, giving his mother his bessa that be he dead or alive, he would fetch Doruntine back personally whenever their mother "yearned for her daughter's company".

Three weeks after the newly wed couple rode off to Bohemia, a plague infested Norman army attacked the principality. All nine Vranaj brothers died within a week of plague or wounds. No one could recall a more impressive funeral. All the counts and barons of the principality attended, even the prince himself, and dignitaries of neighbouring principalities came as well.
However,
...the mother, in those days of grief, did not have her only daughter, Doruntine, at her side. But Doruntine alone had not been told about the disaster.

Now three years had passed. The Lady Mother cursed Constantine for not fulfilling his pledge. One night word spread that Doruntine had returned. She and her Lady Mother were ill and near death at the castle. Furthermore, Doruntine said she had been brought back by her brother Constantine.

Kadare now adds his own classic twist to the legend in the form of Stres, the prince's local functionary and administrator. Like all good bureaucrats, Stres must decide what information to pass on to his employer, and at the same time, try to investigate and take control of the events, before rumour and superstition have run completely amok. Like other Kadare characters whom fate has burdened with difficult situations, Stres is not just a bureaucrat, he is a skilled one, a thinker, a character in a highly structured system able to appreciate nuance, a man of integrity.

The women's illness was attributed to shock. Stres felt his superior should know of the event, and after attempting to interview the women, wrote in his report, I concluded that neither showed any sign of mental irresponsibility, though what they now claim, whether directly or indirectly, is completely baffling and incredible. It is as well to note at this point that they have given each other this shock, the daughter by telling her mother that she had been brought home by her brother Constantine, the mother by informing her daughter that Constantine, with all her brothers, had long since departed this world.

What then to make of this mysterious stranger, the one who had brought her home, then left her at the castle gate saying "Go on ahead. I have something to do at the church"? On examination, Constantine's grave was disturbed. Had someone tried to perpetuate a hoax? Could the dead man have risen from his grave in his lonely mother's hour of need? The peasants could not stop talking about the matter. The story grew and spread, ... changing shape like a wandering cloud.

The prince reported the events to the Archbishop, who summoned Stres to an interview. It was a time of passionate division between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. There was only one man who could rise from the dead. That a man could rise from the dead now was "...a ghastly heresy. An arch-heresy" Heresy could mean a painful death indeed for those who subscribed.The story must be squelched. It must be managed. Perhaps Stres could produce a lover who had brought Doruntine home? There had to be a rational explanation, or at least the appearance of one.

How Stres conducted his investigation and how the case was concluded, become in Kadare's version a nationalist statement. Kadare was still living in Albania when this novel was first published, and the matter of dogmatic orthodoxy was still one of life and death, so its treatment is more muted here than in his later work, written in France. That however does not make it any less a novel.

Interesting narration of the "Ballad of Doruntine and Constantine" or "Constantine's Besa", an old Albanian legend from the Middle Ages, in this novella. Doruntine, who has married someone in Bohemia, far from Albania, is brought back to her mother by a mysterious horseman. Shortly thereafter, she and her mother both die. Here is the text of the original ballad: https://web.archive.org/web/20100714071117/http://www.albanianliterature.net/ora...

Kadare's story picks up where the ballad leaves off. Captain Stres of the local militia sets out to find just what REALLY happened. Could Constantine have brought her back? The only problem with this is that her brother Constantine had been either killed in war or died of the plague prior to this return to her mother's house. How could a dead man bring her back? After dropping her at her house, the horseman says he has some business at the church graveyard and rides off. The story follows Stres's investigations. Various theories as to the horseman's identity are presented besides that of the dead man resurrected from the grave to keep his solemn promise. Some Albanian culture is presented in the form of the besa: sacred oath that must be fulfilled even after death--much more serious than a mere promise.

The story flowed along and I liked following the different theories. Some Albanian history, politics and attitudes of the church [both Catholic and Orthodox] towards the occurrence appeared through Kadare's text. The translation of this work seemed pedestrian the first time I read it, but either someone different translated the revision retitled The Ghost Rider from the original in English, Doruntine, or Kadare's additions made it more understandable, but I enjoyed it more. Living under the Hoxha dictatorship, Kadare clothed his feelings about modern Albania in this story. To me, Kadare is uneven; some of his works I've really liked and others not so much. This story really was spooky; I'd advise not reading it late at night. ( )

One night Doruntine Vranaj returns to her childhood home after spending the last three years in far-away Bohemia with her husband. She maintains that it was her brother Kostandin who brought her back, though he has been dead for a long time. So who was the mysterious horseman?

I have to admit that I didn't get on with this novella at all; even though it's under 200 pages long, the time spent reading it felt too long all the same. Deathly dull, it endlessly regurgitates different theories as to what happened, ignoring Doruntine's own statements but letting characters' prejudices colour their beliefs, or making them appear extremely gullible. In another author's hands, this would have made for a riveting read, but as Stres, the investigating officer, considers and then discards each theory, it felt like wading through literary treacle. Not only that, he also appears incompetent as he fails to ask the right questions or act on time; there is very little action, atmosphere or sense of the time period (it's supposed to be the Middle Ages, yet the novella is littered with verbal anachronisms); the sentences are needlessly wordy; and the whole narrative lacks tension and drive, instead just meandering slowly along. It's very rare that I don't finish a book, but The Ghost Rider has joined the ranks of those ignominious few as I didn't have the will to continue to the end. ( )