index 5324d1d..70c18cb 100644
--- a/src/_pylibmcmodule.c
+++ b/src/_pylibmcmodule.c
-@@ -600,6 +600,13 @@ static PyObject *_PylibMC_parse_memcached_value(PylibMC_Client *self,
+@@ -600,6 +600,11 @@ static PyObject *_PylibMC_parse_memcached_value(PylibMC_Client *self,
}
#endif
-
-+#if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
+
+ /* make sure we don't pass a null pointer to _PylibMC_deserialize_native */
+ if (value == NULL) {
+ value = "";
+ }
-+#endif
+
if (self->native_deserialization) {
retval = _PylibMC_deserialize_native(self, NULL, value, size, flags);