Pajtim Statovci’s debut novel, My Cat Yugoslavia was quite an impressive novel. It was a coming-of-age, immigration story with some surreal sections involving giant cats and snakes which represented a gay dominant/submissive relationship. That’s not mentioning the political commentary. There may be too many themes but it’s all concise and the message hits. It’s no surprise that it was nominated for several book awards.
Bolla is Statovci’s third novel, and it’s a considerable development from his debut: the surreal elements are toned down and the amounts of themes are spaced. Bolla is tighter.
The novel examines love and its different forms. The main protagonist, closet gay, Arsim marries a woman just to please his father. He later strikes up a relationship with Milos, a Serb. The two fall deeply in love with each other.
Arsim’s life takes a series of turns: he has to leave Albania for with his family due to the war, then through circumstances he lands in jail and then his wife finds out his orientation and he has to return to Kosovo, where he resumes his search for Milos.
Bolla is about love and how far one will go for it. In Arsim’s case, his love for Milos starts out as illicit but it is proof of how love can break down boundaries. Later on, when Arsim returns, his love for Milos is so strong that he risks his future looking for him.
The novel is also a commentary on Albania post Kosovo. An Albania where people are more organised, yet life is rough. At the beginning at the book, Arsim dreams of becoming a writer and Milos tells him that anything can be achieved. When he returns, he understands that it’s more difficult. In fact, he becomes a bus driver, which he does accept but is far away from what he used to work as when he was in Serbia.
Mind you, Arsim does not lose hope in being a writer:
“I am envious of those writers, both of their ability to imagine such stories and worlds and their skill at being able to translate those thoughts into written form”
There are alternate sections in the book where Arsim is writing a novel, and although we do get Milos’ viewpoint these sections give Bolla a meta dimension.
And what is Bolla? It’s a serpentlike dragon in Albanian folklore. Once it is spotted it will devour the onlooker. The next question is, “Is love the Bolla of the novel? Is it war? Is it trying to go against one’s wishes?” The novel poses many questions.
Pajtim Statovci is one of those authors, I recommend you look out for. His works are layered. Whether talking about war or the facets of love, he tends to go right for the core and Bolla is no exception. If anything Bolla is his richest novel.
Also a shout out to translator David Hackston for bringing out Statovci’s poetic style:
“Loneliness peels you out of your skin, cuts out your tongue, and abandons you in a stale, locked room to slowly evaporate.”
I dare anyone not to be affected by words such as these.