My cat Yugoslavia

'A strange, haunting, and utterly original exploration of displacement and desire and a world apart from anything you are likely to read this year' Téa Obreht, New York Times Book Review'Fearless, delicate, beautiful, sad, haunting, and wonderful.

A brilliant novel' Jeff VanderMeerYugoslavia, 1980s: a 16-year-old Muslim girl named Emine is married off to a man she hardly knows.

But what was meant to be a happy match soon goes terribly wrong.

Her country is torn apart by war and she flees with her family. Decades later Emine's son, Bekim, has grown up a social outcast in Finland; both an immigrant in a country suspicious of foreigners, and a gay man in an unaccepting society.

Aside from casual hookups, his only friend is a boa constrictor whom he lets roam his apartment - even though he is terrified of snakes. But one night in a gay bar, Bekim meets a talking cat who moves in with him and his snake.

This witty, charming, manipulative creature starts Bekim on a journey back to Kosovo to confront his demons and make sense of the remarkable, cruel history of his family.

It is a journey that will eventually lead him to love.