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.
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Monika Radojevic is a London-born Brazilian-Montenegrin poet, writing mentor, performer and author, and the youngest-ever winner of the Merky Books New Writers' Prize. She spent years working in feminist politics before moving to Berlin in August 2025 to write full time. Her writing is a continuous exploration of the messiness of power dynamics. Her book, A Beautiful Lack of Consequence, was awarded the Cosmopolitan Best Short Story collection of 2025 and her debut novel, Strangerland captures the incredible true love story of two immigrants in London in the 90s. She's currently looking to develop a show about women's rage, and is open to any support or advice!
Sophie Pownall is the Co-Founder of Feminist Fiction Berlin and runs an intersectional feminist bookblog on Instagram and Tiktok (@intersectionalbookshelf). Sophie works as a Project Manager at the Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur and has vast experiences working in the NGO field. She completed her MA in European studies at the University of Bath where she focused mainly on intersectional feminism.
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