My Cat Yugoslavia is Pajtim Statovci’s debut novel, set in 1980s Kosovo and contemporary Finland. The story jumps between two characters’ stories: a woman growing up in post-Tito Yugoslavia who immigrates to Finland and her young, gay son Bekim, who feels like an outsider both due to his immigration status and sexuality. The novel shares several parallels with the author’s personal life with the biggest diversion being that Bekim dates a talking cat. Statovci’s sharp-tongued, surrealist piece employs similar styles to that of Murakami and Bulgakov. My Cat Yugoslavia received mixed but generally positive reviews when it first came out in 2014. For those less taken with the novel, people generally expressed their inability to make sense of some of the imagery and to tie up loose ends. Yet, I would argue that’s what makes this such a pleasurable and sensory reading experience.