Books from Kosovo
My Cat Yugoslavia
In 1980s Yugoslavia, a young Muslim woman enters an arranged marriage that quickly turns unhappy. When war fractures the country, she and her family leave for Finland, starting over in a place far from everything familiar. The novel follows two timelines: hers, rooted in the disintegration of a homeland, and that of her son Bekim, who grows up in Finland where displacement passes from one generation to the next.
Bekim lives on the margins of Finnish society, isolated both as an immigrant and as a gay man. His apartment holds an unlikely resident: a boa constrictor he keeps despite being afraid of snakes. His social life is sparse until he meets, at a gay bar, a talking cat. The cat is witty and manipulative, and it moves in with Bekim and the snake. This surreal companion pushes Bekim toward Kosovo and toward confronting his family's past.
Pajtim Statovci's debut novel shifts between realism and fable, using its stranger elements to explore questions of belonging, sexuality, and inherited trauma. The story connects two countries and two generations, each shaped by forces beyond their control. Statovci was born in Kosovo and raised in Finland, and the novel draws on that specific geographic split.
Plot
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.