Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m not sure I understand this book. It‘s the story of a mother and her son, born in #Kosovo, fled to Finland, thinking of Kosovo. What they share is her husband, his father and his impact on their lives. It‘s a story about outcasts, about not belonging, about suffering and abandonment. And of course there are a cat (a racist boyfriend) and a boa constrictorp. Does it sound confusing? It is!

#ReadingEurope2020 🇽🇰 #Booked2020 #ArmchairTravel

A very sad but beautiful book, really enjoyed it.
#ReadingEurope2020 #Kosovo 🇽🇰 (5 books left, off to #Malta next 🇲🇹)

Wine and a book? 🍷📖 Oh go on then if I must!
#BorrowBox

Bekim's narrative was interesting and sympathetic to him as an immigrant and him as a gay man in the opening and concluding sections. His mother's narrative was interesting throughout. However, Bekim's narrative in the middle was -- odd. I'm still trying to work out what exactly was going on with the giant talking cat. An abusive partner? A projection of Bekim's own dark side? Or does Bekim just live in a world where there are giant talking cats?

Not quite sure I would agree - a good ending is important

#coffeeandabook

#7days7covers #covercrush Day 6

@NeedsMoreBooks want to join? Post seven book covers you love each day for seven days, no explanations needed, and invite someone new each day.

An immigrant lonely buys a snake which he is afraid off. Meets a cat that triggers his need to rediscover his home country. Story explores his experiences growing up as an immigrant in Finland. 7/10.

My Cat Yugoslavia weaves together folk-lore, clashing politics and family strife. The politics are riveting, but the talking-cat storyline felt a bit heavy-handed (trying to avoid spoilers here!)

This was Book 16 of my #52Booksin2018 (slightly out of order!)

This month‘s book club read! I ate through it pretty fast thanks to the great writing and interesting tone. LOVE how Pajtim describes people and bodies. a very human story that‘s inspired me to do more research. I highly recommend the documentary ‘A Cry from the Grave‘ if you‘re planning to or have read this book.

So this was pretty weird but I love all things Eastern Europe so I enjoyed it. Intersecting stories of a young gay man who ends up with a snake and a human-like cat, interspersed with what I think is his mother‘s story of getting married to what turns out to be an abusive husband in Kosovo, and ending up as refugees in Finland. I liked it a lot but have a limited group of people I might recommend it to.

#TBRtemptation post 2! Translated from Finnish. In 1980s Yugoslavia, a young Muslim girl, Emine, is married off to a near-stranger. The happy matching isn't happy. With war, they flee to Finland, where their son, Bekim, is a social outcast with three strikes: Muslim, foreigner, and gay. With a boa constrictor and cat as his companions, will things improve? Reviewers consider this book thought-provoking and powerful. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

Parts Bulgakov, Kafka, Proust, and Murakami? That is like 4 scoops of my favorite kinds of ice cream in one book bowl. This blurb had me at hello!
#tbr #effectiveblurb

Congratulations @Cinfhen! Great achievement and will-deserved for all the great photo challenges. I'd choose My Cat Yugoslavia for #crushingongiveaway. I've heard good things!

This was a fantastic read on the implications of being treated as an outsider/foreigner/refugee. Here's my full review:
https://sumaiyyareads.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/book-review-my-cat-yugoslavia-by-...

So I finished reading this and thought it was such a beautiful and painful narrative of the immigrant experience. We have two storylines, one of a mother and the other of her son - both are distinct, present differing perspectives on life yet both work so well together to show just how deeply being marginalized affects people. A beautiful portrait of loneliness and feeling like an outsider. (Giveaway coming up on my Bookstagram sumaiyya.books!)

This book is so good!! I'm already about 100 pages in and I'm loving it. It's about a young man and the talking cat who makes him confront his past and changes his life. Brilliant ❤️

There are good bones in this book, but in the end it's unpolished. I was set to give a higher rating, because of the strong storytelling when the author describes the refugee experience especially in the Emine storyline. The Bekim storyline was so discombobulated and I kind of hated the ending.

Going to the library today was like scratching an itch... it was either this or buying new books... I feel better now! 😂😂😂

[4/5] I was happy that I picked this up. This book tells two stories: a man's story (his struggle to love and live as a gay immigrant) and his mother's story when she was young, how she's going through her marriage life and how she managed her life after she fled her country. // You can read more of my opinion on Instagram @Fabookishlife

After I stopped blaming this book for not being what I thought it was (quirky & fun), & took it on its own terms (dark & serious), I appreciated it more for daring to ask how we can possibly have true relationships in a disparate world. The book catalogs all the vicissitudes of alienation: from nature, from God, from sex, from violence & war, from assimilation & culturalizaton, from language, from despots real & imagined, familial & feline.

This new release, a (bizarre, surrealist) graduation present to myself. To be read as a reward as soon as I leave my final undergraduate class (!) this Friday.

Shame on the publisher for inflicting this unripened novel on the world. The Kosovar mom's story is heart-rending and realistically told, but the interleaved narrative of her gay son, a refugee in Finland, is simply awful: he is nothing but a conglomeration of resentments, ideas, and neuroses. His pet is a boa constrictor; in the most unenjoyable, unreal, bizarre section, one of his boyfriends is a talking, racist, homophobic cat. Need I say more?

Amazing, odd, funny, touching, intersectional, fascinating.

The enigmatic opening paragraph or prologue. (I finally found a free etext preview of the first chapter or two, on iBooks, so I could paste in a few quotes - I sure am enjoying it on audio so far!)

About the author (click on the link below if the print on my GIF is too tiny)

http://www.salomonssonagency.se/pajtim-statovci

This is starting out good on audio!

Okay so here we have a Muslim woman, her gay son, a boa constrictor and a talking cat. How can I refuse?! Gotta check this one out when it's released in April. Hope my curiosity doesn't kill the cat! #diversebooks #2017MostAnticipatedBooks