The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Statovci, Pajtim. My Cat Yugoslavia. New York: Pantheon Books, 2017. Kindle Edition. Translated by David Hackston.

The book begins with an online chat forum for gay hook-ups. Bekim narrates the prologue, in which he met with a handsome man, Ville, from the website. After they had sex, Bekim kicked him out.

Starting with the first chapter, the narrators begin to alternate between Bekim in the present and his mother in 1980. Bekim narrates the first untitled section of the chapter, and his mother, Emine, is the subject of the second section. Bekim bought a boa constrictor, and, in 1980, Emine met her future husband, Bajran.

In Chapter 2, Bekim went to university in Finland but was ostracized because he is an immigrant. In 1980, Bajran’s family agreed to pay for the wedding. In the present, Bekim reflected on his absent father. In 1980, Emine went to buy candy to treat herself for the wedding. In the present, Bekim met an alluring cat. In the past, Emine received a massive amount of expensive clothing as a gift from her fiancé, and screamed at her siblings to get away when they tried to look at her gifts.

In the present, Bekim and the cat talked at the bar, and then Bekim invited him back to his place. In the past, Emine goes through a series of pre-wedding rituals. In the present, Bekim woke up next to the cat and tried to hide his snake from the cat. In the past, Emine got dressed for the wedding in the finest clothing and jewelry. In the present, Bekim remembered his abusive father and how much he hated him. In the past, Bajran broke tradition and came to pick Emine up for the wedding, then sexually assaulted her and hit her in the car. In the present, the cat moved in with Bekim, and started being abusive. They both applied to film school. In the past, Emine arrived at the wedding and became enraptured with all of her new possessions. In the present, Bekim got into film school and the cat did not, so they got into a fight that the snake had to break up. In the past, Emine and Bajran consummated their marriage, but the celebration got cut short because of the death of the president.

In the past, Bajran and Emine had children, and then Bajran’s parents died, and he moved the family to Prishtina. When the political situation got bad, they moved to Finland. In the present, Bekim went to Yugoslavia and found a kitten. As a child, we learn in a flashback, he had a fear of cats and snakes, but his parents took him to a psychologist and then had an exorcism performed on him. In the past, Bajran got a job in Finland and then lost it, and then grew depressed when the war broke out in his homeland. In the present, Bekim went to his mother’s village with the cat and captured a deadly viper in a plastic bag.

In the present, Bekim lost the cat and the snake and then went back to Prishtina and met with a stranger from the internet who was married and had children. In the past, Bajran robbed a grocery store with his friend. In the present, Bekim flew back home to Finland and met a handsome man named Sami. In the past, Bajran started running stolen goods across the country. In the present, Bekim and Sami started dating and confessed their love to one another. In the past, Emine left Bajran in the middle of the night because she did not want to return to Kosovo. Bajran returned to Kosovo and died.

In the present, Bekim and Sami moved in with one another and started fighting. Bekim lied to Sami and said that he had cheated on him, they broke up, and Bekim got depressed. In the past, Emine moved into an apartment and started working at a grocery store where she met a woman who gave her a kitten. In the present, Bekim and Sami got back together and Bekim killed his snake. Bekim told Sami that his father had committed suicide.