Pajtim Statovci (b. 1990) is a Finnish-Kosovan novelist. He fled Kosovo with his family at the age of two and now lives in Helsinki. Statovci holds an MA in Comparative Literature and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Helsinki.
His debut novel, My Cat Yugoslavia (2014), won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize and established him as a distinctive literary voice, praised for blending the dreamlike with the realistic. The novel was published in English in 2017 and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. He was also awarded Helsinki Writer of the Year in 2018.
Statovci’s second novel, Crossing (2016), received the Toisinkoinen Literature Prize and was a National Book Award finalist in 2019 in its English edition. Statovci’s third novel, Bolla (2019), won the Finlandia Prize, making him the youngest recipient at 29. The English edition was published in 2021 by Pantheon Books (US) and Faber & Faber (UK).