diff --git a/src/database/error.rs b/src/database/error.rs
index a67be49..cd9e097 100644
--- a/src/database/error.rs
+++ b/src/database/error.rs
@@ -25,9 +25,14 @@ impl Error {
         use std::str::from_utf8;
         use std::ffi::CStr;
 
-        let err_string = from_utf8(CStr::from_ptr(message).to_bytes()).unwrap().to_string();
+        let err_string = from_utf8(CStr::from_ptr(message).to_bytes())
+            .map(|s| s.to_string());
         leveldb_free(message as *mut c_void);
-        Error::new(err_string)
+
+        match err_string {
+            Ok(err_string) => Error::new(err_string),
+            Err(_) => Error::new("The error returned by LevelDB is not valid UTF-8".into())
+        }
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/database/mod.rs b/src/database/mod.rs
index 2f9ac3c..f759884 100644
--- a/src/database/mod.rs
+++ b/src/database/mod.rs
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ use self::options::{Options, c_options};
 use self::error::Error;
 use std::ffi::CString;
 use libc::c_char;
+#[cfg(unix)]
+use std::os::unix::ffi::OsStrExt;
 
 use std::path::Path;
 
@@ -108,7 +110,14 @@ impl<K: Key> Database<K> {
     pub fn open(name: &Path, options: Options) -> Result<Database<K>, Error> {
         let mut error = ptr::null_mut();
         unsafe {
-            let c_string = CString::new(name.to_str().unwrap()).unwrap();
+            #[cfg(unix)]
+            let c_string = CString::new(name.as_os_str().as_bytes()).unwrap();
+            #[cfg(not(unix))]
+            let c_string = CString::new(
+                name.to_str()
+                    .ok_or_else(|| Error::new("Path is not valid Unicode".into()))?,
+            )
+            .unwrap();
             let c_options = c_options(&options, None);
             let db = leveldb_open(c_options as *const leveldb_options_t,
                                   c_string.as_bytes_with_nul().as_ptr() as *const c_char,