Originally published by Rescue Press in 2017, Lawlor’s LAMBDA-finalist debut novel quickly became a cult classic. Now reissued and on its way to full-fledged classic status, the book follows Paul Polydoris, queer studies major and bartender at the only gay club in a university town, through the landscape of the 1990s. From identity politics and Queer Nation to Riot Grrrl and zines, Lawlor, Fence fiction editor, hits all the right cultural notes, and Paul is an unforgettable character, slippery in the vein of Woolf’s Orlando as he shapeshifts, travels, and finally winds up his odyssey in San Francisco.
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Born in Kosovo and now living in Finland, Statovici made an international splash with his debut My Cat Yugoslavia. His second novel is a beautifully written and empathetic story of two friends who flee post-Communist Albania. Hoping to make a home for themselves in Italy, Bujar and Agim are instead doubly marginalized by being foreign and gender-queer. Struggling to find their identities, the two rely on each other and on the stories they’ve brought with them. Statovici, awarded the 2018 Helsinki Writer of the Year Award, brilliantly interweaves rich tales of Albania’s mythic past with the blunt realities of today’s Europe. With support from the Finnish Embassy.