In his award-winning novels My Cat Yugoslavia and Crossing, Kosovan-born Pajtim Statovci explored love in a homophobic society, fractured identity and exile – his family fled to Finland when he was two. He covers similar ground in his third novel Bolla, deftly translated by David Hackston, although this book feels considerably darker.
In 1995 Pristina, Arsim, an Albanian who dreams of becoming a writer, meets and falls for Miloš, a Serbian medical student. Chapters alternate between their two narratives. Arsim is married to Ajshe and deeply resentful of the loveless marriage orchestrated by his father “because a man… is expected to reproduce and continue the family tree”. When Ajshe dutifully becomes pregnant he beats her.
