Pisica mea Iugoslavia

Emine’s marriage starts in Yugoslavia in the 1980s. The marriage is troubled from the start. She is a young Muslim and hardly knows her husband. When war breaks out, she and her family flee to Finland. Her son Bekim grows up there. He faces distrust and violence as a foreigner.

Bekim lives alone and has brief affairs. He keeps a pet boa constrictor, though he fears it. He lets the snake roam his flat. Then he meets a talking cat in a gay bar. The cat charms him but seeks to control him. It leads him back to Kosovo to face his family’s past. The trip helps him accept love from an unexpected source.

This is Pajtim Statovci’s first novel. It blends a family story with fantasy and symbols. It suits readers drawn to tales of exile and outsiders. It looks at the harm that war leaves behind. It also explores deep rifts between fathers and sons. Other themes include loneliness, lost roots, and love’s power to heal. This edition forms part of the EndorFiction series.

Statovci was born in Kosovo in 1990. His parents are Albanian. He grew up in Porvoo, Finland. He studied comparative literature at Helsinki University. He also studied screenwriting at Aalto University. He first published this novel while still a student. Its title was Kissani Jugoslavia. It won the Helsingin Sanomat debut prize. In 2019, it earned a Dublin Literary Award nomination. A stage version opened in 2018 at Helsinki’s Finnish National Theatre. The German translation won the Internationaler Literaturpreis in 2024.