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My Cat Yugoslavia [Book] Goodreads
author: Pajtim Statovci / David Hackston Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2017 - 4
A love story set in two countries 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, but what was meant to be a happy match goes quickly wrong. Soon thereafter her country is torn apart by war and she and her family flee. Years later, her son, Bekim, grows up a social outcast in present-day Finland, not just an immigrant in a country suspicious of foreigners, but a gay man in an unaccepting society. Aside from casual hookups, his only friend is a boa constrictor whom, improbablyโ€”he is terrified of snakesโ€”he lets roam his apartment. Then, during a visit to a gay bar, Bekim meets a talking cat who moves in with him and his snake. 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 it is this that, in turn, enables him finally, to open himself to true loveโ€”which he will find in the most unexpected place.

finished reading My Cat Yugoslavia ๐ŸŒ•๐ŸŒ•๐ŸŒ•๐ŸŒ‘๐ŸŒ‘
by Pajtim Statovci.

Interleaves the story of a young Albanian refugee in Finland, excluded & traumatised, with that of his mother's wedding & her hopes for a future filled with love. The symbolism of the cats & snakes is a bit weird but I think I finally got my head around it. Mostly interesting for its depictions of Albanian culture and Finnish xenophobia.

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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de