The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Strangerland
Author: Monika Radojevic
Published: March 2026
Genre: Literary
Themes: Family, Heritage

One sentence summary: Strangerland proves that love can transcend language, borders and whole oceans.

One sentence review: Radojevic’s debut is a roaring success, readers will be incredibly moved by this one.

Review:

Inspired by true events and set in London, 1990. Alegria and Zivoin have a chance meeting in a corner shop and Zivoin knows this is the girl he will marry despite Alegria’s initial reservations. Only in London for a limited time they pair become inseparable. But how will they manage when visa’s run out and ocean’s separate them?

One of the most tender and loving stories I’ve read in a long while, Strangerland will stay with me for a long time. Alegria and Zivoin didn’t have the easiest paths to London, nor the easiest times there, but they found home in each other and that time they had was such a pleasure to read. I often feel like poets make for incredible novelists and Radojevic is proving that.

The story has drama entwined through it and the plot is pacy. Devastation and the threat of potential heartbreak meets them at every crossroad and every corner. My heart was in my throat for so much of this book, I had to forcibly put it down each night. I also sobbed at multiple points at this book, so you know it truly got to me.

This is Radojevic’s third published piece (after her poetry collection and short story collection) and it has easily made it’s way to one of my favourite books ever. This is her best work to date and I am floored by it. It was utterly addictive and I need more, now. 2

It’s such a beautifully moving story and I just know so many of you will love this, so do yourself a favour and get this on order ASAP.

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And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 07/03/2026