«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 review)

«It is so beautifully written and observed - so so perfect»

Jeff VanderMeer (Twitter)

«Anyone who writes as naturally and powerfully as Statovci surely has models, but they're not apparent in My Cat Yugoslavia, and he's one of those rare performers in language who puts you out of mind of all others while you're reading his charged, bounding prose... [A] remarkable book»

The Bay Area Reporter

«This beautiful novel is about a great many things . . . 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

«Striking... a memorably disconcerting novel, a kind of literary Let the Right One In»

Observer

«Spry and warm . . . 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.»

New Yorker

«An elegant, allegorical portrait of lives lived at the margin, minorities within minorities in a new land... [My Cat Yugoslavia] a fine debut, layered with meaning and shades of sorrow»

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

«A startlingly original tale... This novel's singular ingredients combine to make a strange but thoroughly intoxicating brew»

The National

«Compelling . . . [an] important exploration of the aftershocks of war.»

Publishers Weekly

«'One of my favourites from the past few months... heartbreaking at times, heartwarming, melancholy and unusual... compelling to read, touching and beautifully fresh... I cannot recommend it enough»

Of Beauty and Nothingness (blog)

«This is a must read and a debut of emotional heft»

Sumaiyya Reads (blog)

«A gripping and ambitious novel . . . explores refreshing literary paths, and Pajtim Statovci is a voice to remember.»

Elle, France

«After this superb debut it's safe to say: this is a literary voice to follow»

Sofi Oksanen

«My Cat Yugoslavia operates on so many levels. It completely enraptures me. The boldness of its structure, prose, wisdom and sorrow. ... It is brutal, painful, and utterly topical.»

Sveriges Radio, Sweden

«Widely praised, very good passages, particularly when [Statovci] is writing about life in Kosovo... an extraordinary achievement»

Sunday Times

«It's a surreal fable that makes tangible the dislocation felt by those who are persecuted in their home country and in the country that gives them refuge»

Financial Times

«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

«Beguiling, intelligent and tender... a masterclass in defining the soft spots which mark human vulnerability»

The Big Issue

«Pajtim Statovci's debut novel is the most breathtaking reading experience I've had in years! My Cat Yugoslavia draws you in instantly and offers a reading adventure in which the fate of individual and ethnic group, along with friendship, love, fear, extended family and immediate family, and the turmoils through history of both a single person and a whole country, are all inextricably intertwined.»

Hämeen Sanomat, Finland

«Beyond the success and international resonance of his debut novel, Statovci inspires conversation with his boldness...With a sensual realism imbued with fantastical elements and popular tradition, Statovci confronts the fundamental themes of the bildungsroman.»

Il Venerdi di Repubblica, Italy

«A strange, haunting, and utterly original exploration of displacement and desire . . . 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

«A wonderful and haunting novel about war, family, love - and a talking cat»

Attitude

«Statovci offers the redemptive promise of love to leaven this stirring portrait of migration's multi-faceted loneliness.»

Spectator

«This dark debut has a daring, irrepressible spirit»

The Atlantic

«[A] compelling and altogether beautiful debut novel... Inventive and playful... At a time when there is a shortage of empathy for refugees both here and in Europe, Statovci's queer perspective on the search of rootedness in My Cat Yugoslavia is wonderful and original - and much welcome, too»

Slate

«Fascinating and heartbreaking. The young debutant Pajtim Statovci, who himself came to Finland as a two-year-old, addresses the material of which alluring human fates are woven. The detail is impressive; one is truly caught and wants to follow Emine till the end. ... My Cat Yugoslavia cuts quickly between Emine and Bekim's stories. Both are well-told, both fascinate, and both engage.»

Jyllands-Posten, Denmark

«A lion of a writer. ... Pajtim Statovci's first novel will be remembered. We can expect great things from him.»

Helsingin Sanomat, Finland

«An utterly brilliant debut . . . This little gem truly does have everything. Intelligence, warmth, love and pain woven together into an elegantly composed novel about solitude, pets, and the tragic fate of the Kosovo Albanians during the Balkan war in the nineties.»

Sydsvenskan, Sweden

«I cannot but heap praise upon Statovci's debut novel. It is entertaining, engaging and ingenious.»

Ystads Allehanda, Sweden

«Poignant and sorrowful, sometimes harrowing, while in a strange way also entertaining, almost carefree. Above all it feels real, true. It captures a feeling which I imagine many migrants and refugees can identify with - and that the rest of us can actually understand too.»

Göteborgs-Posten, Sweden

«A multifaceted tale of migration, love, family and - let's just call it "animal husbandry". An impressive novel by a 24-year-old debutant.»

Tidningen Kulturen, Sweden

«An insanely great debut in all its rattling, imaginative chaos . . . a terrifically openhearted, wild and gentle tale of what the hell it means to fit in in an average Nordic "lottery country" when you're neither very average nor lucky in lotteries. It's written with a young, vibrantly hot hand.»

Politiken, Denmark

«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 <i>The Danish Girl</i>

«The cat is a surrealist break in an otherwise realist novel, and a turning point in Bekim's search for love in Statovci's richly symbolic tale of flight and return, and return, and return again.»

Globe and Mail

«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