Reviews - Gli invisibili | The StoryGraph

622 reviews for:

Gli invisibili

Pajtim Statovci

3.93 AVERAGE

laballena's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

georgiageist's review against another edition

4.75

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Bolla (published 2019, English translation 2021) is a short, haunting novel that explores love, war, identity, shame, and the long shadows of trauma. Set primarily in Kosovo during the 1990s and early 2000s, it follows the doomed relationship between two men — Arsim and Miloš — whose love is destroyed by war, homophobia, internalized shame, and guilt.

The novel is named after the “bolla,” a mythical Albanian serpent-demon that awakens once a year and is associated with both desire and destruction — a central metaphor for the forbidden passion and haunting psychological burdens of the characters.

🕰️ Structure and Narrative

The novel moves fluidly across:

• 1995-1996: The start of Arsim and Miloš’s affair in Pristina, Kosovo.

• Late 1990s/Early 2000s: The Kosovo War and its aftermath.

• Early 2000s and beyond: Arsim’s life in exile and his haunted present.

The novel is told primarily from Arsim’s point of view, with brief interludes where Miloš’s perspective appears, adding additional layers of complexity.

🧑‍⚕️ Main Characters

Arsim

• Ethnic Albanian.

• Married to a woman (Ajshe), with whom he has two children.

• Desperately wants to be a writer, but his life is confined by societal expectations, repression, and political tensions.

• Closeted, tormented by his sexuality, living in denial and self-loathing.

Miloš

• Ethnic Serb.

• Medical student.

• Openly acknowledges his sexuality with more comfort than Arsim.

• His existence in Kosovo is complicated by his identity as part of the oppressor class during the conflict.

• In many ways, he embodies the possibility of freedom and emotional honesty that Arsim cannot accept.

🕰️ I. The Beginning: Love in a Pre-War Kosovo

In 1995, Arsim and Miloš meet in a café in Pristina. Their relationship quickly becomes deeply physical and emotionally intense. Despite Arsim’s marriage and internalized homophobia, they fall into a passionate, secret affair.

Their connection offers a temporary escape from the suffocating atmosphere of ethnic tension, political repression, and rigid gender expectations that define their daily lives.

For Arsim, the affair is not just about sex; it represents an entirely different existence — one that is both intoxicating and terrifying because it forces him to confront parts of himself he cannot fully accept.

Miloš is more emotionally open, while Arsim is consumed by shame, guilt, and fear of exposure. The fear of being discovered weighs constantly on Arsim, both for personal and political reasons — homosexuality is taboo, but so is fraternizing with the “enemy” as interethnic tensions rise.

🕰️ II. The Kosovo War and Its Impact

As war breaks out, Arsim’s life is shattered:

• He is arrested and tortured.

• His family is displaced.

• His academic and writing ambitions are destroyed.

• The war becomes the brutal external manifestation of his internal war — a deepening of his shame, self-loathing, and trauma.

He loses contact with Miloš, whose fate is left ambiguous for much of the novel.

The war also creates permanent emotional and psychological damage that shapes Arsim’s future decisions and relationships.

🕰️ III. Exile and Aftermath

After the war, Arsim and his family flee to Finland. Even in exile, Arsim is unable to find peace. His internalized hatred festers:

• His relationship with Ajshe is cold and distant.

• He becomes physically abusive.

• His children are alienated from him.

• He lives in crushing isolation, disconnected from his family, community, and even himself.

He continues to dream of becoming a writer but never manages to achieve literary success, symbolizing his sense of unfulfilled potential and failure. His life in exile is not one of freedom but of ongoing psychological imprisonment.

🕰️ IV. Reunion and Tragedy

Years later, Arsim tracks down Miloš, now severely ill and living a life far from the hopeful medical career he once pursued. Miloš’s life has been as tragic and broken as Arsim’s. Their reunion is fraught with pain, unspoken guilt, and unresolved tension.

Miloš represents both the past Arsim cannot escape and the possibility of a life that might have been. But the weight of time, war, and repression makes true reconciliation impossible.

The emotional gulf between them is unbridgeable. Miloš’s decline serves as a mirror for Arsim’s spiritual decay. The love that once offered salvation has curdled into mutual sorrow.

🧨 V. The Bolla – Metaphor of Desire and Destruction

Throughout the novel, the bolla recurs as a mythological symbol for:

• Forbidden desire.

• The monstrous consequences of repressed passion.

• The constant, cyclical haunting of guilt and memory.

The bolla wakes once a year and consumes everything in its path — much like Arsim’s passion, shame, and guilt destroy every meaningful part of his life.

⚰️ VI. Ending: Entrapment, Not Liberation

The novel closes with Arsim trapped in his unresolved guilt, loneliness, and spiritual paralysis. There is no redemption or catharsis.

• His wife and children are estranged.

• His career is nonexistent.

• Miloš is gone.

• The only thing that remains is the crushing weight of what could have been.

🎯 Major Themes (Expanded)

1️⃣ The Destruction of Shame and Self-Loathing

Arsim’s repression of his sexuality is the central tragedy. His inability to accept himself ultimately destroys every meaningful relationship in his life.

2️⃣ War and Personal Identity

The ethnic conflict parallels Arsim’s internal conflict. Just as Kosovo is ripped apart by nationalism and violence, Arsim is ripped apart by competing identities and desires.

3️⃣ The Nature of Love

The love between Arsim and Miloš is both authentic and doomed — filled with tenderness but poisoned by secrecy, fear, and societal condemnation.

4️⃣ Masculinity and Control

The novel critiques toxic masculine norms — Arsim’s need to dominate his wife and children reflects his own loss of control over his identity.

5️⃣ Exile and Displacement

Even in exile, Arsim remains emotionally exiled from himself. His physical displacement mirrors his psychic alienation.

6️⃣ The Legacy of Violence

The war leaves not only physical destruction but deep psychological scars that shape the characters’ futures long after the violence has ended.

📝 Tone and Style

• Sparse, precise prose.

• Bleak but emotionally devastating.

• Constant atmosphere of suffocation, longing, and dread.

• Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North is about public trauma and moral failure; Bolla is about intensely private trauma and internalized failure.

🏁 Final Thought

Bolla is ultimately a novel about the cost of self-denial. It shows how fear of authenticity — when compounded by social, cultural, and political forces — can hollow out a person’s life, leaving them trapped by the very choices they made to protect themselves. Like the mythical bolla, the monster Arsim tried to suppress ends up consuming him completely.

rucsandra's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rayne_1906's review against another edition

5.0

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

1 hour 54 minutes - This was phenomenal. I read this as part of my ambition to read a book from every country in the world, and this just proves why that challenge is beneficial, as I never would have come across this book otherwise. The writing style was so engaging and I honestly could not stop reading. It perfectly portrays the effects of conflict, homophobia, abuse, and how the three can intersect and twist. I've been thinking about this book for days after I finished it.

sincerelymendacious's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

inkerin_kirjasto's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Miksi Statovcin kirjat ovat kivuliaampia kuin hammaslääkärin tuoli? Ja miksi niiden lukeminen tuntuu silti niin välttämättömältä ja merkitykselliseltä?

En voi sanoa nauttineeni Bollasta, vaan päinvastoin kirja aiheutti enemmän ahdistuksen ja jopa kuvotuksen tunteita. Tarina kuvaa miestä, joka on onnettomassa avioliitossa, isä lähes tahtomattaan sekä auttamattoman solmussa seksuaalisuutensa ja toiveidensa kanssa. Mies saa maistaa hetken vimmaista onnea ja halua, mutta kohtalottarella on muita suunnitelmia sodan runnellessa läpi ihmiselämien.

Bolla on hyvä - jopa erinomainen - mutta minulla on edelleen paha mieli. Loppu oli onneton, vaikkakin maustettu pienellä säväyksellä jostain paremmasta. Koska olen tuohtunut kärsimysnäytelmästä ja onnettomista kohtaloista, arvosteluni ei ole millään tavalla linjassa minkään kriteerien kanssa.