The title 'Crossing' can refer to a crossing of gender or a crossing of countries. The author explores what it means to assume a certain gender or be an immigrant. In both cases, there is the struggle to be accepted and valued. In Bujar's case, he changes gender depending on what gets him acceptance. He even capitalizes on it in the singing program, thinking that it would get him to the final round. But he fails, which goes to show that substance matters. He cruelly borrows the identity of his girlfriend, Tanja, when participating in the singing program and abandons her when he fails to make the final. In doing so, he caused her suicide. We find out at the end of the book that this is not the first death he caused. Readers must have been wondering where Ajim is and we find out towards the end that Bujar accidentally pushed him into the waters (spoiler!). Bujar is not a very likable character but this is still an immensely readable book, providing rare insights into Albania and a sensitive topic. ( )

Growing up in the eighties in Albania is hard enough, but with the death of his father, Bujar's family spins apart. Bujar's best friend, Amir, has always known what he wanted and now he proposes that the two of them set out for Italy, where they will surely prosper and live their dreams. But reaching Italy isn't the solution it first seemed, and as he moves from country to country, he finds that being an Albanian migrant is a hinderance. He tries living as a man in Spain and as a woman in Germany, each time with disastrous results. New York is difficult, but maybe Finland will be more welcoming?

This is a novel that explores what being an outsider feels like, whether that of being a foreigner from an undesirable country or someone whose gender and sexuality fall outside of what is accepted, and is even criminalized in some places. The protagonist has to constantly reinvent himself, hoping with each move that he will finally find the acceptance he longs for. I found this novel to be thought-provoking and challenging. ( )

Another Albanian native is on the move and confused about his gender identity, just like in the author’s first novel My Cat Yugoslavia. Here, Buja leaves Albania with his only friend Agim, both being confused about whether to present as male or female. Landing in Italy alone and gaining asylum and a passport, Bujar then moves on to Germany, Spain, the US, and finally to Finland, in search of contentment that he never allows himself to find. Along the way, Buja cruelly and purposelessly breaks hearts and even causes a suicide. It is not until the final pages that the reader discovers how and why Bujar and Agim parted. The writing and translations here are fine, but the unhappiness Buja causes in himself and in every single person he encounters just ceaselessly piles on, despite his glimmers of insight into his own lack of character, and his self-centered actions just get tiring.

Quote: “What I would understand the least is the nature of desire, the numbness that follows when it’s fulfilled. Getting what you want feels like being defeated by triumph; the feeling that you would give everything away to go back to the beginning, to revive your story’s origin.” ( )

Bujar is so intelligent, so aware, so adept at understanding motives, yet he continually sabotages himself, unable to align his self-knowledge with his actions on a consistent basis. How does one move into adulthood if tragedy has them trapped in emotional adolescence?

Bujar's personal journey mirrors in many ways what happens in Albania, at least as Statovci tells it in this novel. One (Bujar or Albania) holds tightly to a mythology of self, acting as though that mythology is the truth, but each day is a fight against the little signs of the reality beneath the myth that bubble to the surface. What happens if we tear away the myth? Can we excavate through the reality and improve it from the foundations up, or can we only hope to patch the little breaks in the facade as they appear? Is there a point at which the myth itself becomes all that's holding the entire structure together? ( )

Pajtim Statovci is a Finnish/Kosovan author who started making headlines when his first novel My Cat Yugoslavia won the prestigious (in Finland, at least) Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for debut fiction, and was also adapted for the Finnish National Theatre. His second novel, Crossing (Pushkin Press), is the story of 2 boys who flee from Albania and travel across borders to different countries, and differing levels of acceptance and intolerance, taking in Rome, New York and Helsinki along the way. I am not qualified to judge the accuracy of David Hackston’s translation but I really enjoyed the humour and character of the first-person protagonist, Bujar, whose resilience and wit in overcoming harsh travails along the way is made artful. ( )