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A Child and a Country at the End of History

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Free

By: Lea Ypi
Narrated by: Rachel Babbage, Lea Ypi
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About this listen

Longlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

A reflection on "freedom" in a dramatic, beautifully written memoir of the end of Communism in the Balkans.

Lea Ypi grew up in the last Stalinist country in Europe: Albania, a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. While family members disappeared to what she was told were "universities" from which few "graduated," she swore loyalty to the Party. In her eyes, people were equal, neighbors helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world.

Then the statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote and worship freely, and invest in hopes of striking it rich. But factories shut, jobs disappeared, and thousands fled to Italy, only to be sent back. Pyramid schemes bankrupted the country, leading to violence. One generation's dreams became another's disillusionment. As her own family's secrets were revealed, Ypi found herself questioning what "freedom" really means. With acute insight and wit, Ypi traces the perils of ideology, and what people need to flourish.

©2021 Lea Ypi (P)2022 Tantor Cultural & Regional Russian & Soviet
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Well written, but doesn't work so well as a novel

Free is an excellent book about the last years of the Albanian regime and the first years after it. It mixes an essay and novel styles, and I feel it would have benefited from choosing one style over the other and just stuck with it.

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