diff --git a/changelog/new.txt b/changelog/new.txt
index e7a2c72..9af438a 100644
--- a/changelog/new.txt
+++ b/changelog/new.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Bugs fixed:
 - prune did abort when no time was set for a pack-do-delete. This case is now handled correctly.
 - retrying backend access didn't work for long operations. This has been fixed (and retries are now customizable)
 - The zstd compression library led to data corruption in very unlikely cases. This has been fixed by a dependency update.
+- Non-unicode link targets are now correctly handled on Unix (after this has been added to the restic repo format).
 
 New features:
 - New global configuration paths are available, located at /etc/rustic/*.toml or %PROGRAMDATA%/rustic/config/*.toml, depending on your platform.
diff --git a/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/ignore.rs b/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/ignore.rs
index 1d37ad7..2b9d6b7 100644
--- a/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/ignore.rs
+++ b/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/ignore.rs
@@ -313,15 +313,7 @@ fn map_entry(
         Node::new_node(name, NodeType::Dir, meta)
     } else if m.is_symlink() {
         let target = read_link(entry.path()).map_err(IgnoreErrorKind::FromIoError)?;
-        let node_type = NodeType::Symlink {
-            linktarget: target
-                .to_str()
-                .ok_or(IgnoreErrorKind::TargetIsNotValidUnicode {
-                    file: entry.path().to_path_buf(),
-                    target: target.clone(),
-                })?
-                .to_string(),
-        };
+        let node_type = NodeType::from_link(&target);
         Node::new_node(name, node_type, meta)
     } else {
         Node::new_node(name, NodeType::File, meta)
@@ -441,15 +433,7 @@ fn map_entry(
         Node::new_node(name, NodeType::Dir, meta)
     } else if m.is_symlink() {
         let target = read_link(entry.path()).map_err(IgnoreErrorKind::FromIoError)?;
-        let node_type = NodeType::Symlink {
-            linktarget: target
-                .to_str()
-                .ok_or_else(|| IgnoreErrorKind::TargetIsNotValidUnicode {
-                    file: entry.path().to_path_buf(),
-                    target: target.clone(),
-                })?
-                .to_string(),
-        };
+        let node_type = NodeType::from_link(&target);
         Node::new_node(name, node_type, meta)
     } else if filetype.is_block_device() {
         let node_type = NodeType::Dev { device: m.rdev() };
diff --git a/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/local.rs b/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/local.rs
index 913288f..245b9b2 100644
--- a/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/local.rs
+++ b/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/local.rs
@@ -488,12 +488,14 @@ impl LocalDestination {
         let filename = self.path(item);
 
         match &node.node_type {
-            NodeType::Symlink { linktarget } => symlink(linktarget.clone(), filename.clone())
-                .map_err(|err| LocalErrorKind::SymlinkingFailed {
-                    linktarget: linktarget.to_string(),
+            NodeType::Symlink { .. } => {
+                let linktarget = node.node_type.to_link();
+                symlink(linktarget, &filename).map_err(|err| LocalErrorKind::SymlinkingFailed {
+                    linktarget: linktarget.to_path_buf(),
                     filename,
                     source: err,
-                })?,
+                })?;
+            }
             NodeType::Dev { device } => {
                 #[cfg(not(any(
                     target_os = "macos",
diff --git a/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/node.rs b/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/node.rs
index e50a5ad..7797580 100644
--- a/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/node.rs
+++ b/crates/rustic_core/src/backend/node.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ use std::{
     cmp::Ordering,
     ffi::{OsStr, OsString},
     fmt::Debug,
+    path::Path,
     str::FromStr,
 };
 
@@ -17,9 +18,11 @@ use chrono::{DateTime, Local};
 use derive_more::{Constructor, IsVariant};
 use serde::{Deserialize, Deserializer, Serialize};
 use serde_aux::prelude::*;
-use serde_with::base64::{Base64, Standard};
-use serde_with::formats::Padded;
-use serde_with::{DeserializeAs, SerializeAs};
+use serde_with::{
+    base64::{Base64, Standard},
+    formats::Padded,
+    serde_as, DeserializeAs, SerializeAs,
+};
 
 #[cfg(not(windows))]
 use crate::error::NodeErrorKind;
@@ -39,6 +42,7 @@ pub struct Node {
     pub subtree: Option<Id>,
 }
 
+#[serde_as]
 #[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq, IsVariant)]
 #[serde(tag = "type", rename_all = "lowercase")]
 pub enum NodeType {
@@ -46,6 +50,9 @@ pub enum NodeType {
     Dir,
     Symlink {
         linktarget: String,
+        #[serde_as(as = "Option<Base64>")]
+        #[serde(default, skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
+        linktarget_raw: Option<Vec<u8>>,
     },
     Dev {
         #[serde(default)]
@@ -59,6 +66,60 @@ pub enum NodeType {
     Socket,
 }
 
+impl NodeType {
+    #[cfg(not(windows))]
+    pub fn from_link(target: &Path) -> Self {
+        let (linktarget, linktarget_raw) = target.to_str().map_or_else(
+            || {
+                (
+                    target.as_os_str().to_string_lossy().to_string(),
+                    Some(target.as_os_str().as_bytes().to_vec()),
+                )
+            },
+            |t| (t.to_string(), None),
+        );
+        Self::Symlink {
+            linktarget,
+            linktarget_raw,
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[cfg(windows)]
+    // Windows doen't support non-unicode link targets, so we assume unicode here.
+    // TODO: Test and check this!
+    pub fn from_link(target: &Path) -> Self {
+        Self::Symlink {
+            linktarget: target.as_os_str().to_string_lossy().to_string(),
+            linktarget_raw: None,
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Must be only called on NodeType::Symlink!
+    #[cfg(not(windows))]
+    pub fn to_link(&self) -> &Path {
+        match self {
+            Self::Symlink {
+                linktarget,
+                linktarget_raw,
+            } => linktarget_raw.as_ref().map_or_else(
+                || Path::new(linktarget),
+                |t| Path::new(OsStr::from_bytes(t)),
+            ),
+            _ => panic!("called method to_link on non-symlink!"),
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Must be only called on NodeType::Symlink!
+    // TODO: Implement non-unicode link targets correctly for windows
+    #[cfg(windows)]
+    pub fn to_link(&self) -> &Path {
+        match self {
+            Self::Symlink { linktarget, .. } => Path::new(linktarget),
+            _ => panic!("called method to_link on non-symlink!"),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 impl Default for NodeType {
     fn default() -> Self {
         Self::File
@@ -136,9 +197,9 @@ impl Node {
     pub const fn is_special(&self) -> bool {
         matches!(
             self.node_type,
-            NodeType::Symlink { linktarget: _ }
-                | NodeType::Dev { device: _ }
-                | NodeType::Chardev { device: _ }
+            NodeType::Symlink { .. }
+                | NodeType::Dev { .. }
+                | NodeType::Chardev { .. }
                 | NodeType::Fifo
                 | NodeType::Socket
         )
@@ -356,4 +417,10 @@ mod tests {
         let expected = OsStr::from_bytes(expected);
         assert_eq!(expected, unescape_filename(input).unwrap());
     }
+
+    #[quickcheck]
+    fn from_link_to_link_is_identity(bytes: Vec<u8>) -> bool {
+        let path = Path::new(OsStr::from_bytes(&bytes));
+        path == NodeType::from_link(path).to_link()
+    }
 }
diff --git a/crates/rustic_core/src/commands/restore.rs b/crates/rustic_core/src/commands/restore.rs
index 6d6dd29..0f4cbfd 100644
--- a/crates/rustic_core/src/commands/restore.rs
+++ b/crates/rustic_core/src/commands/restore.rs
@@ -225,17 +225,7 @@ impl RestoreOpts {
                         // process existing node
                         if (node.is_dir() && !dst.file_type().unwrap().is_dir())
                             || (node.is_file() && !dst.metadata().unwrap().is_file())
-                            || {
-                                let this = &node;
-                                matches!(
-                                    this.node_type,
-                                    NodeType::Symlink { linktarget: _ }
-                                        | NodeType::Dev { device: _ }
-                                        | NodeType::Chardev { device: _ }
-                                        | NodeType::Fifo
-                                        | NodeType::Socket
-                                )
-                            }
+                            || node.is_special()
                         {
                             // if types do not match, first remove the existing file
                             process_existing(dst)?;
diff --git a/crates/rustic_core/src/error.rs b/crates/rustic_core/src/error.rs
index 3e6926d..db7b398 100644
--- a/crates/rustic_core/src/error.rs
+++ b/crates/rustic_core/src/error.rs
@@ -669,7 +669,7 @@ pub enum LocalErrorKind {
     /// failed to symlink target {linktarget:?} from {filename:?} with {source:?}
     #[cfg(not(any(windows, target_os = "openbsd")))]
     SymlinkingFailed {
-        linktarget: String,
+        linktarget: PathBuf,
         filename: PathBuf,
         #[source]
         source: std::io::Error,
diff --git a/src/commands/diff.rs b/src/commands/diff.rs
index 8f1b73e..38edeaf 100644
--- a/src/commands/diff.rs
+++ b/src/commands/diff.rs
@@ -194,14 +194,9 @@ fn diff(
                     NodeType::File if metadata && node1.meta != node2.meta => {
                         println!("U    {path:?}");
                     }
-                    NodeType::Symlink { linktarget } => {
-                        if let NodeType::Symlink {
-                            linktarget: linktarget2,
-                        } = &node2.node_type
-                        {
-                            if *linktarget != *linktarget2 {
-                                println!("U    {path:?}");
-                            }
+                    NodeType::Symlink { .. } => {
+                        if node1.node_type.to_link() != node1.node_type.to_link() {
+                            println!("U    {path:?}");
                         }
                     }
                     _ => {} // no difference to show
diff --git a/src/commands/ls.rs b/src/commands/ls.rs
index de26d5e..f847c39 100644
--- a/src/commands/ls.rs
+++ b/src/commands/ls.rs
@@ -137,8 +137,8 @@ fn print_node(node: &Node, path: &Path) {
             .mtime
             .map(|t| t.format("%_d %b %H:%M").to_string())
             .unwrap_or_else(|| "?".to_string()),
-        if let NodeType::Symlink { linktarget } = &node.node_type {
-            ["->", linktarget].join(" ")
+        if let NodeType::Symlink { .. } = &node.node_type {
+            ["->", &node.node_type.to_link().to_string_lossy()].join(" ")
         } else {
             String::new()
         }