My Cat Yugoslavia
A Novel
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
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, improbably—he is terrified of snakes—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 love—which he will find in the most unexpected place
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In current day Helsinki, Bekim, an isolated, gay, 20-something ethnic Albanian born in Kosovo, acquires a boa constrictor and intentionally keeps it out of its terrarium, preferring to let the snake wrap itself around his body instead. Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, readers follow Bekim's history: the story of his mother and father before they were married and he was born, the Serbian destruction of Islamic Albania, and the family's eventual move to Finland. As each story line progresses, the gap between the two timelines closes, illustrating how the past and the present have shaped Bekim. The chapters featuring Bekim's mother, beginning in 1980 when she was 15 years old, powerfully reveal her strained marriage to a traditional, domineering man and her endless domestic responsibilities because "a Kosovan home should always look tidy and shouldn't look lived in." She works tirelessly to placate her husband and protect her children, a task made infinitely more difficult once the family is displaced to cold, foreign Finland. But the thread following adult Bekim is far more difficult to track, particularly once he meets a cat in a bar: "he raised his front paw to the top button of his shirt, unbuttoned it, and began walking toward me." The reality here becomes hard to parse, and it's unclear if the cat is whimsical or a reflection of Bekim's disturbed mental state. While the story of the family is compelling, the juxtaposition with the talking cat becomes a jarring counterpoint, interfering with the otherwise important exploration of the aftershocks of war.
