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A love story set in two countries and in two radically different moments in time, bringing together a young man, his mother, a boa constrictor, and one capricious cat.
In 1980s Yugoslavia, a young Muslim girl is married off to a man she hardly knows, and what was meant to be a happy match quickly goes wrong. Shortly thereafter, the country is torn apart by war and she and her family flee to Finland, where her son Bekim grows up to become a social outcast - not just an immigrant in a country suspicious of foreigners but also a gay man in an unaccepting society. Aside from casual hookups, his only companion is a boa constrictor that, improbably (he is terrified of snakes), he lets roam around his apartment.
Then one night, at a gay bar, Bekim meets a talking cat, who also moves in with him. It is this witty, charming, manipulative creature who starts Bekim on a journey back to Kosovo to confront his demons and make sense of the magical, cruel, incredible history of his family. And this, in turn, enables Bekim finally to open himself to true love - which he will find in the most unexpected place.
"Starred Review. Statovci is a tremendous talent. This debut novel - a deserved winner of the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for Best First Novel in 2014 - has an intensity and power that demands a second reading." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. An elegant, allegorical portrait of lives lived at the margin ... A fine debut, layered with meaning and shades of sorrow." - Kirkus
"Compelling ... [an] important exploration of the aftershocks of war." - Publishers Weekly
"Alternating between two first-person narrators and swerving between realism and allegory, Statovci sacrifices some linear continuity to emphasize broader points about his characters' hybrid identities and disjunctive experiences. Will symbolism, whimsy, and emotionally manipulative animals resonate with international audiences? Finland bestowed the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for best first novel." - Booklist
"After this superb debut it's safe to say: this is a literary voice to follow." - Sofi Oksanen, author of When the Doves Disappeared
"This book is a rallying cry for breaking conventions of structure and characterization, and it marks the debut of an irresistible new talent. I cannot wait to see what Pajtim Statovci does next." - Rakesh Satyal, author of Blue Boy and No One Can Pronounce My Name
"Pajtim Statovci is a writer of brilliant originality and power, and his debut novel conveys as few books can what life feels like now." - Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You
This information about My Cat Yugoslavia was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Anna Kurki
Pajtim Statovci was born in Kosovo to Albanian parents in 1990. His family fled the Yugoslav wars and moved to Finland when he was two years old. He holds an MA in comparative literature and is a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki. His first book, My Cat Yugoslavia, won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for best debut novel; his second novel, Crossing, was a finalist for the National Book Award; and Bolla was awarded Finland's highest literary honor, the Finlandia Prize. In 2018, he received the Helsinki Writer of the Year Award.
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