'A strange haunting & utterly original exploration of displacement & desire & a world apart from anything you are likely to read this year' Tea Obreht New York Times Book Review' Fearless delicate beautiful sad haunting & wonderful A brilliant novel' Jeff Vander Meer Yugoslavia 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 & 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 & 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 & his snake This witty charming manipulative creature starts Bekim on a journey back to Kosovo to confront his demons & make sense of the remarkable cruel history of his family It is a journey that will eventually lead him to love