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Strangerland
London, 1990. Zivoin is newly arrived in a strange country. The dependable oldest son, he works all hours of the day and night, sending every penny he can save back to his family. On the news, he watches his homeland, Yugoslavia, slowly fracturing.
Thousands of miles away, in the tropical heat of Uberlândia, Brazil, Alegria prepares to leave behind the country – and the family – she loves dearly. Bright and ambitious, she strives to give her parents the life they deserve, even if it takes her far from them.
A chance meeting throws Alegria and Zivoin together – and for a brief moment, they feel at home. But their journey is just beginning, and what follows will draw them irresistibly across countries and continents, leaving them both forever changed.
The powerful, exhilarating debut novel from an award-winning new voice in fiction, Strangerland is a heartfelt testament to the endurance that has come to define a generation of immigrants. Above all, it is a soaring, emotionally rich story about the power of love to transcend languages, borders and time.
Thousands of miles away, in the tropical heat of Uberlândia, Brazil, Alegria prepares to leave behind the country – and the family – she loves dearly. Bright and ambitious, she strives to give her parents the life they deserve, even if it takes her far from them.
A chance meeting throws Alegria and Zivoin together – and for a brief moment, they feel at home. But their journey is just beginning, and what follows will draw them irresistibly across countries and continents, leaving them both forever changed.
The powerful, exhilarating debut novel from an award-winning new voice in fiction, Strangerland is a heartfelt testament to the endurance that has come to define a generation of immigrants. Above all, it is a soaring, emotionally rich story about the power of love to transcend languages, borders and time.
- GenresFiction
344 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 5, 2026
11 people are currently reading
424 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
OK, this totally took me by surprise.
This is a true story which has been fictionalised as a debut novel, based on the authors, Monika Radojevic, parents.
It's the early 1990's and Zivoin is a Yugoslavian immigrant in London. Yugoslavia is falling apart; the tensions are rising and there talk of civil war. Zivoin is watching this from afar, watching his country fall apart while trying to keep a roof over his head in London and his parents in Montenegro.
Alegria, a is Brazilian woman who has entered the UK illegally. She hopes to find a cash in hand job to support her family in Brazil.
This is the story of immigrant love, sacrifice, resilience, and displacement, exploring the struggle to find belonging in a new country.
This book is a vibe of damp concrete and peeling paint. It's the London you only see when your lost, foreign or broke. The London only those in the cracks of society see.
I haven't read anything on Yugoslavia, so this was fascinating to me. I love a book that sends me down a Internet rabbit hole. I learnt a lot reading this and am interested to read more historical fiction around this subject.
There were a few things around the immigration and passport process that pulled me out of the story as they weren't realistic to me however I understand why the decision was made to fast track and skim past a lot of the bureaucracy.
This surprised me and I'm keen to learn more.
Four stars.
This is a true story which has been fictionalised as a debut novel, based on the authors, Monika Radojevic, parents.
It's the early 1990's and Zivoin is a Yugoslavian immigrant in London. Yugoslavia is falling apart; the tensions are rising and there talk of civil war. Zivoin is watching this from afar, watching his country fall apart while trying to keep a roof over his head in London and his parents in Montenegro.
Alegria, a is Brazilian woman who has entered the UK illegally. She hopes to find a cash in hand job to support her family in Brazil.
This is the story of immigrant love, sacrifice, resilience, and displacement, exploring the struggle to find belonging in a new country.
This book is a vibe of damp concrete and peeling paint. It's the London you only see when your lost, foreign or broke. The London only those in the cracks of society see.
I haven't read anything on Yugoslavia, so this was fascinating to me. I love a book that sends me down a Internet rabbit hole. I learnt a lot reading this and am interested to read more historical fiction around this subject.
There were a few things around the immigration and passport process that pulled me out of the story as they weren't realistic to me however I understand why the decision was made to fast track and skim past a lot of the bureaucracy.
This surprised me and I'm keen to learn more.
Four stars.
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December 3, 2025Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for an eARC in exchange for an honest review
Love is real! and can surpass all challenges! These were my two takeaways from this impactful book. Radojevic has the honour here of sharing some of the story of her parents, and the complex series of events that led to her Brazilian and Montenegrin heritage. Alegria and Zivoin face down the odds over and over again and have a commitment to one another strong enough to say lets keep trying even when it looked like things were going to be impossible. Pulled on all my heartstrings and gave lots of food for thought for topical issues such as immigration and tensions in Eastern Europe.
I also have to add, although I know it makes me sound like any other young person addicted to their phone, but those scenes of Alegria landing in Yugoslavia with no way of contacting anyone, knowing where she was, or communicating with anyone had me so stressed out. Talk about crossing the world with a hope and a prayer!
Love is real! and can surpass all challenges! These were my two takeaways from this impactful book. Radojevic has the honour here of sharing some of the story of her parents, and the complex series of events that led to her Brazilian and Montenegrin heritage. Alegria and Zivoin face down the odds over and over again and have a commitment to one another strong enough to say lets keep trying even when it looked like things were going to be impossible. Pulled on all my heartstrings and gave lots of food for thought for topical issues such as immigration and tensions in Eastern Europe.
I also have to add, although I know it makes me sound like any other young person addicted to their phone, but those scenes of Alegria landing in Yugoslavia with no way of contacting anyone, knowing where she was, or communicating with anyone had me so stressed out. Talk about crossing the world with a hope and a prayer!
April 18, 2026
Could not put this down!!!!! Fell in love with the characters and the writing style. So beautiful and moving, knowing this is based on Monika’s parents real story has made me love it even more and I want to be invited for family dinner to learn even more about them 🥹
October 30, 2025
Monika Radojevic is a Brazilian-Montenegrin writer and poet whose debut novel Strangerland takes something from her heritage to craft an emotionally engaging and well-told story.
Alegria and Zivoin are immigrants - she fro Brazil, he from Yugoslavia. It is the early 1990s and his homeland is being torn apart by war. She desires a better life. A chance meeting between the two starts a love story which spans the continents but remains universal in its impact. Radojevic's prose is captivating, and her characterisation is spot-on - I could their voices - and the story moves along at a fair old speed. I ended up reading this in one sitting and really enjoyed my time spent in this world.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Alegria and Zivoin are immigrants - she fro Brazil, he from Yugoslavia. It is the early 1990s and his homeland is being torn apart by war. She desires a better life. A chance meeting between the two starts a love story which spans the continents but remains universal in its impact. Radojevic's prose is captivating, and her characterisation is spot-on - I could their voices - and the story moves along at a fair old speed. I ended up reading this in one sitting and really enjoyed my time spent in this world.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Since meeting the woman in the supermarket, Zivoin had felt that same curious feeling. A strange sort of impatience –a powerful instinctive recoil from the agony of waiting. He knew he had to speak to her again. After their meeting that day, he’d become convinced a fork in the road had opened up: a life with her, and one without her. It felt urgent. He found her radiant, but the shock of her beauty would fade eventually. He didn’t know how he would ever explain this to her, but it was the earnestness with which she’d picked up and examined each vegetable that had moved him. She was so unwilling to let a stranger walk away with something as inconsequential as an imperfect potato, he could only imagine the kind of love she reserved for the people in her life. He wanted to be one of them. Once again, the situation felt out of his hands.
The author is a poet, writer, Substacker and performer who has worked across the non-profit sector (including a lengthy spell as a political campaigner for the Women’s Equality Party) and in freelance creative work – but who was best known for being an inaugural winner (and still I think youngest winner to date) of the Merky Books New Writers Prize in 2019, aged just 23, for a poetry submission – which lead to her 2021 poetry collection “Teeth In the Back of My Neck” and was followed by (also published by PRH’s Merky Books Imprint) a 2025 short story collection “A Beautiful Lack of Consequence”.
She was born in London to a Brazilian mother and Montenegrin Father – and this her debut novel as well as showcasing her versatility of form, is effectively a lightly fictionalised retelling of the story of how two people from such very difficult cultures (both of which were going through huge upheavals) somehow met in London and came together.
The story takes place over six months from October 1990 to April 1991 and initially switches chapters between its two protagonists Ziovin and Alegria.
We meet Alegria in her Brazilian home-area of Uberlândia – in the latest economic collapse her family have fallen on difficult times – her father’s supermarket chain fruit business has collapsed and he now works as a hotel porter, and she has quit her job as a primary school teacher (which kept the family afloat but increasingly did not pay enough) to go to London to learn English to qualify for a prep school position in Brazil a friend has found for her. In London the careful and reserved Alegria intends to join her more free spirited sister Simone (who followed her boyfriend there).
We first meet Ziovin in London where he has been based for some 18 months – working as a bartender and studying English and as the oldest son of his Montenegrin peasant-origin family saving his earnings to take back to his family. But meanwhile his beloved Yugoslavia (he is a Yugoslavian as much as Montenegrin patriot) is faced with the risk of disintegration, and even civil war, something he does not want to contemplate but which his father increasingly warns him of.
And really the remainder of the story tells of: how Alegria reaches England (after an initial immigration disaster), her interactions with Simone, Ziovin’s life, how the two meet at a supermarket checkout, their initial difficulties (not helped by Simone’s worry about her immigration status), the way friends (particularly Simone) get them together, how they vow to stay close even when Alegria returns to Brazil and how they end up meeting again in Yugoslavia as war looms (after a harrowing bus journey which opens the novel).
I have to say that this is a relatively simple tale compared to my normal reading fare – its family biography inspiration gives it authenticity but also at times made me feel that some of the scenes were more poignant/impactful for the author rather than me (one of the reasons I rarely ever read family memoirs). What perhaps distinguishes it from many other London-based immigrant-meeting stories is the country origin of both of the participants (and even more so their intermingling).
I would not be surprised to see this uplifting tale feature on Prize Lists – for example the 2026 Women’s Prize or a Debut Novel Prize - and the author with a different work on a future Dylan Thomas Prize (reviews of her poetry and short stories seem to hint at a more political edge to her work, and her versatility across all three forms the Prize covers, and heryoung age would make her I think ideally suited).
My thanks to Cornerstone, Random House UK for an ARC via NetGalley
How does it happen so quickly? How does a stranger move from the periphery to the centre so fast there is no time to prepare any cushioning in case things break along the way? It doesn’t make sense – but then, a lot of things in life don’t make sense even after they’ve been explained. Fax machines. Vinyl. Whatever goes on inside a caterpillar’s cocoon. The fact that the stars we see in the sky are mostly gone, their dying light crawling its way towards us from the future. The length of time it takes to fall in love. None of these things should operate the way they do, but they do. And, yes, there were steps that were supposed to happen. Conversations about Thatcher, about life’s biggest fears, about what kind of holidays are best and what a typical Sunday looks like. There were meant to be family introductions, first arguments, sweaty nights in bed, questions about the future, yes, all of that. But the thing is, sometimes all it takes is a few hours. That’s just the way it goes.
March 19, 2026
London, 1990. As the oldest son, Zivoin has taken on the responsibility of helping to support his family. Working all the hours he can in a strange country is taking its toll, but he hopes the money he sends back to Yugoslavia will go some way to helping his family traverse troubled times in his homeland.
Meanwhile, in Uberlândia, Brazil, Alegria prepares to travel thousands of miles to London. Her plan is to join her sister there for three months to earn enough to help her family prosper - if she can make it past the immigration officials.
When the two meet in London, something sparks between them. Somehow spending time with each other makes them feel like they are home. The attraction grows into love, but there are so many obstacles in the way of their relationship...
Based on the true story of how her parents met, Monika Radojevic weaves a spellbinding novel that portrays how the power of love can surpass the obstacles of language, nationality, economics, and even impending war.
Against an evocative backdrop of far reaching political turmoil, from the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, ructions in the Middle East, financial instability in Brazil, and the fracturing of Yugoslavia, our two young people meet and fall in love. Happiness is surely guaranteed, but there are many trials to be endured before they can be together.
Radojevic writes her characters with warmth and authenticity, and all the little popular culture references work so well. I soon took the lovers, their families, and their friends to heart - following them all through immigration difficulties; the gulf between them in terms of their experiences and backgrounds; the strangeness of living and working illegally in a foreign country; and the near impossibility of finding a place they can settle down together.
She touches beautifully on so much about family ties, identity, and belonging, as Zivoin and Alegria take significant risks to pursue their romantic journey. I laughed and cried with them, and at times my heart was lodged firmly in my throat, especially when the lovers must enter dangerous territory to cement their relationship. And I am so impressed with they way she floods this story with the many ways in which the disintegration of Yugoslavia impacts the characters, even though the actual nitty of the looming war happens largely in the wings.
Sweeping and irresistibly absorbing, this is an eloquent debut novel that thrums with vibes of time and place. Radojevic is a shining new voice in fiction who really deserves your time. I look forward to watching her career develop.
Meanwhile, in Uberlândia, Brazil, Alegria prepares to travel thousands of miles to London. Her plan is to join her sister there for three months to earn enough to help her family prosper - if she can make it past the immigration officials.
When the two meet in London, something sparks between them. Somehow spending time with each other makes them feel like they are home. The attraction grows into love, but there are so many obstacles in the way of their relationship...
Based on the true story of how her parents met, Monika Radojevic weaves a spellbinding novel that portrays how the power of love can surpass the obstacles of language, nationality, economics, and even impending war.
Against an evocative backdrop of far reaching political turmoil, from the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, ructions in the Middle East, financial instability in Brazil, and the fracturing of Yugoslavia, our two young people meet and fall in love. Happiness is surely guaranteed, but there are many trials to be endured before they can be together.
Radojevic writes her characters with warmth and authenticity, and all the little popular culture references work so well. I soon took the lovers, their families, and their friends to heart - following them all through immigration difficulties; the gulf between them in terms of their experiences and backgrounds; the strangeness of living and working illegally in a foreign country; and the near impossibility of finding a place they can settle down together.
She touches beautifully on so much about family ties, identity, and belonging, as Zivoin and Alegria take significant risks to pursue their romantic journey. I laughed and cried with them, and at times my heart was lodged firmly in my throat, especially when the lovers must enter dangerous territory to cement their relationship. And I am so impressed with they way she floods this story with the many ways in which the disintegration of Yugoslavia impacts the characters, even though the actual nitty of the looming war happens largely in the wings.
Sweeping and irresistibly absorbing, this is an eloquent debut novel that thrums with vibes of time and place. Radojevic is a shining new voice in fiction who really deserves your time. I look forward to watching her career develop.
March 12, 2026
In ‘Strangerland’, Monika Radojevic tells the story of Alegria, a Brazilian who yearns for a better life. She comes to London and she meets Zivoin who is also an immigrant. Zivoin comes from Yugoslavia, and Radojevic depicts the world that immigrants live in when they come to a new country. The constant worry about money, the fear of being kicked out of the country (especially if you have not come into the country legally), and how they can slowly begin to build a new identity in this strange situation.
The novel is extremely timely considering all the discussion about immigration and how those political debates have led to serious consequences for immigrants in the U.K. Instead of being a polemic, Radojevic’s ‘Strangerland’ highlights the personal costs of the inflammatory and often offensive language around immigration. She shows the very human need we all have for connection, love and survival especially when we have to leave our country of origin.
Radojevic’s ‘Strangerland’ is beautifully resonant and so important right now in 2026. ‘Strangerland’ packs an emotional wallop and it’s a first-rate novel.
The novel is extremely timely considering all the discussion about immigration and how those political debates have led to serious consequences for immigrants in the U.K. Instead of being a polemic, Radojevic’s ‘Strangerland’ highlights the personal costs of the inflammatory and often offensive language around immigration. She shows the very human need we all have for connection, love and survival especially when we have to leave our country of origin.
Radojevic’s ‘Strangerland’ is beautifully resonant and so important right now in 2026. ‘Strangerland’ packs an emotional wallop and it’s a first-rate novel.
Review of advance copy
What a great read. It turned up by pre order the other day and I'm halfway through. Its gripping and scary at some points as people are at the mercy of immigration officials and capitalism but still moving and funny. Really nice to read in hardback with a comfortable to read typeface, too. Grab it stat!
January 22, 2026
An incredible book about love across borders, and the impacts of war, discrimination, racism a s poverty. I was absolutely glued to Alegria and Zivoin’s love story, the fact that it’s based on a true story makes it all the more beautiful!
March 9, 2026
KNOCK OUT
SO GOOD
SO GOOD
April 29, 2026
It is a compassionate goodbye, a solemnity, and a devotional. Helplessly and gently the weight of the world is made bearable.
May 7, 2026
A book full of vibrant, likeable characters, laughter, struggles and real, raw love. The second half had me gripped and utterly consumed.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
March 16, 2026
I enjoyed so many things about this book! I particularly loved the descriptions of Brazil and its warm people. The story had me on edge throughout as I desperately hoped that Alegria and Zivoin would take the ultimate leap of faith to be together.
I’m impressed by a book that can make me both laugh -OUT LOUD- and cry. I thought that the ending was really well done- satisfying, yet leaving enough to the imagination that I was left thinking about it for days after. The epilogue was ****spoiler**** really touching, seeing that Alegria and Zivoin are still together to this day and the novel is written by their daughter.
I’m impressed by a book that can make me both laugh -OUT LOUD- and cry. I thought that the ending was really well done- satisfying, yet leaving enough to the imagination that I was left thinking about it for days after. The epilogue was ****spoiler**** really touching, seeing that Alegria and Zivoin are still together to this day and the novel is written by their daughter.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews