Reading and discussion with the Finnish-Kosovar writer Pajtim Statovci (Helsinki) and his translator Stefan Moster (Berlin)

How do you live a life that doesn't feel like the right one? An impossible love against the backdrop of the Balkan war: two men in search of home and a self-determined life. Pristina, 1995: Arsim is twenty-two and newly married to a woman who lays the world at his feet. A world that becomes more dangerous with each passing day, however, as Kosovo is on the brink of a cruel war.
As an Albanian, Arsim tries not to attract attention in an atmosphere of creeping threat and somehow finish his studies. But then he meets Miloš, a Serb. And the two begin a life in hiding.

"Bolla" tells the story of what it means when current events intrude into private life, when an already forbidden relationship becomes fraught with even more immeasurable dangers and is ultimately torn apart by war and migration.

Pajtim Statovci, born in 1990, is a Finnish-Kosovar writer. He moved from Kosovo to Finland with his Albanian parents when he was two years old. He lives in Helsinki and studied comparative literature. Statovci is celebrated euphorically by international critics as a shooting star and major European author, and his work has received numerous awards. Together with his translator Stefan Moster, he received the International Literature Prize from the House of World Cultures for his novel "My Cat Yugoslavia". He currently works as a research assistant at the University of Helsinki.

Admission 5 & 7 euros