7/5/2023 0 Comments Pajtim statovci crossingWhen Bujar’s father dies, his sister is kidnapped by sex traffickers and his mother is unhinged by grief, the boys run away from home and live on the streets of Tirana and coastal Durrës. The only consolation left is to smoke ceaselessly, or risk their lives by emigrating illegally to Greece or Italy. Europe’s rubbish dump, Europe’s backyard, Europe’s largest open prison”. Like My Cat Yugoslavia, on one level the novel follows a coming-of-age narrative, involving Bujar and his brilliant cross-dressing friend Agim, who are growing up at the end of Enver Hoxha’s 40-year dictatorship.Īs post-communist Albania slides into social collapse, with children being sold into slavery, organ-harvesting and prostitution (this is not dystopian fiction – it was reality), the two boys feel that “we lived in a place that time could not reach. The key setting is Albania (the Finnish title is Tiranan Sydan, “Heart of Tirana”), and the predicament of the ambiguous hero, Bujar, is rooted in the harsh fate of his homeland. The book expands and complicates Statovci’s central theme of youthful revolt – against conventional belonging, pre-determined identities, nationalities, families, origins, against life as a tyranny foretold. Crossing packs a still more devastating punch: it is the work of an accomplished novelist.
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