Pajtim Statovci


Pajtim Statovci is a Finnish novelist. His debut novel, Kissani Jugoslavia, was published in 2014, winning the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for best debut novel in Finnish for that year, and was published in 2017 as My Cat Yugoslavia in the UK and US. It was made into a play and staged at the Finnish National Theater in Helsinki in 2018. His second novel, Tiranan sydän, won the Toisinkoinen Literature Prize for 2016, and was published as Crossing in the UK and the US in 2019.

Early life

Statovci was born in Kosovo in 1990 to Albanian parents. In 1992, after the outbreak of war in Yugoslavia, of which Kosovo was a part and where Albanians were persecuted, his family fled to Finland. He studied comparative literature at the University of Helsinki and screenwriting at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

Awards

2019: Finlandia Award winner for his third novel, Bolla
2019: Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature for Crossing
2019: Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award
2018: Helsinki Writer of the Year Award
2017: Shortlisted for the Future of Finnish Culture Award
2016: Toisinkoinen Literature Prize
2015: Shortlisted for the Flame Bearer Prize
2014: Shortlisted for the Young Aleksis Literature Prize
2014: Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize

Novels