PAJTIM STATOVCI was born in 1990 and moved from Kosovo to Finland with his family when he was two years old. He currently lives in Helsinki, where he is studying comparative literature at the University of Helsinki and screenwriting for film and television at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. My Cat Yugoslavia is his first novel.
"Fearless, delicate, beautiful, sad, haunting, and wonderful. A
brilliant novel that mesmerizes with both its humanity and its
utter uniqueness. A novel you'll be thinking about long after
you've turned the last page."
--Jeff VanderMeer, author of City of Saints and Madmen "Strange and
exquisite, the book is a meditation on exile, dislocation, and
loneliness."
--The New Yorker "Every once in a while, but not often, a book and
author come along so original, so mature, and so timeless you might
think you're discovering a classic from the past. But My Cat
Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci is very much a novel of and for
today. It asks urgent questions about identity and family, humanity
and nationality, symbols and metaphors, but refuses to give any
simple answers. By embracing the complexity of our present world,
Statovci has created a work of literature, and a work of art."
--David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife
"Spry and warm. . . . The novel is a slowly shattering and
re-forming reflection of the protagonists' corresponding descents
into wintry numbness, until, near the end, they begin to revive,
and to love. . . . Statovci's surreal, arresting novel suggests
that . . . love and identity have many reflections, many destinies,
many languages. Sometimes, a broken mirror reflects something
truer--as does the kind of love, drawn from the deepest sunken
places, that tries to put it back together."
--Gabrielle Bellot, The New Yorker's Page-Turner blog [Statovci]
knows how to disorient--and disarm. . . . This dark debut has a
daring, irrepressible spirit."
--The Atlantic "A strange, haunting, and utterly original
exploration of displacement and desire. . . . Statovci's literary
gifts are prodigious. His sentences are lean and precise. He defies
expectations, denies explanation, and excels at the most difficult
aspect of storytelling: building a complex humanity for even his
most deplorable characters. . . . a marvel, a remarkable
achievement, and a world apart from anything you are likely to read
this year."
--Téa Obreht, The New York Times Book Review "[My Cat Yugoslavia]
is inventive and playful. . . . wonderful and original. . . .
compelling and altogether beautiful."
--Slate "This beautiful novel is about a great many things: a snake
and a sexy, sadistic, talking cat; online cruising and Balkan
weddings; the surreal mess of identity; the things that change when
we change our country and the things that never change; the
heartbreaking antagonism between fathers and sons; the bewilderment
of love. 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 "Powerful. . . .
Dramatic. . . . 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) "An elegant, allegorical portrait of
lives lived at the margin. . . . A fine debut, layered with meaning
and shades of sorrow."
--Kirkus Reviews (Starred) "Compelling . . . [an] important
exploration of the aftershocks of war."
--Publishers Weekly "After this superb debut it's safe to say: this
is a literary voice to follow."
--Sofi Oksanen, author of When the Doves Disappeared "Take one part
Bulgakov, one part Kafka, one part Proust, and one part Murakami,
shake and pour over an icy wit, and you have the devastatingly tart
My Cat Yugoslavia. 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
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