My Cat Yugoslavia
Originally published in 2014. Translation by David Hackston.
An internationally acclaimed debut novel about war, family, love and belonging - and a talking cat
Yugoslavia, 1980s: a 16-year-old Muslim girl named Emine is married off to a man she hardly knows. But what was meant to be a happy match soon goes terribly wrong. Her country is torn apart by war and she flees with her family.
Decades later Emine's son, Bekim, has grown up a social outcast in Finland; both an immigrant in a country suspicious of foreigners, and a gay man in an unaccepting society. Aside from casual hookups, his only friend is a boa constrictor whom he lets roam his apartment - even though he is terrified of snakes.
But one night in a gay bar, Bekim meets a talking cat who moves in with him and his snake. This witty, charming, manipulative creature starts Bekim on a journey back to Kosovo to confront his demons and make sense of the remarkable, cruel history of his family. It is a journey that will eventually lead him to love.
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Pajtim Statovci
Pajtim Statovci was born in 1990 and moved from Kosovo to Finland with his family when he was two years old. Published in Finland in 2014, his debut novel, My Cat Yugoslavia, received widespread acclaim among critics and readers alike, and won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize in the category Best Debut. The novel has so far been translated into eleven languages. At present, Pajtim Statovci is undertaking master's degrees in comparative literature at the University of Helsinki and in screenwriting at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.