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A Child and a Country at the End of History

By: Lea Ypi

Narrated by: Rachel Babbage, Lea Ypi

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

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

great as both a story and a time capsule

This book is incredible. If you're interested in cold war history and open to political conversation from a wide amount of angles, it's a book for you. Its a story of a past society united both in faith and fear of the party that led it, and that society crumbling as the vacuum left by the party was filled by a weak central authority and blatant opportunists in post-communist Albania. And the story told is through the eyes of a formerly-enthusiastic participant in the old society, from age 11 watching that society change into the far more divided and confused Albania that -it can be argued- still is today.

Beyond the larger-scale politics, the book covers Lea Ypi's family life: a family frequently engaging in small-scale political debates about the changing political landscape. She learns that she came from a family who's properties were expropriated during the revolution and the resentment of her mother lingered throughout her life and would become a platform for which her mother would launch a political campaign in the emerging centre-right party post-1992. Meanwhile on the other side of the family, her father at one point truly believed in the possibilities of revolutionary warfare to change societies and thus lived in (somewhat) quiet disagreement with his wife's politics.

The book is a fantastically in-depth look into political discourse as a whole, from the wide array of examples shown of these political ideas in practice: from the transition of communism to liberalism, and then into tragic civil war. Highly reccommend this book.

A beautiful book

Gently amusing, eye-opening, and deeply moving. A story of a girl’s early years that’s also a history of Albania’s transition from one quasi-religion to another, from communism of a unique kind - claustrophobic in a way all too apparent to the listener, but lost on the little girl who knows no different - to catastrophic neoliberalism, the gospel of the market that surrendered the nation to criminal gangs, leading to civil war. And throughout, tender, observant portraits of her parents and grandmother, deepened by revelations of family history. A very, very good book.

Captivating memoir & I learned a lot

Knowing nothing about Albania, yet intrigued at learning of a personal story of place and generations, I waded in. The reading and story I found captivating. The context and time in history relevant not only as history but to our present day issues of displacement, economic theory in practice, culture, family. I appreciate the authors views on socialism and at the end the specificity of actual experience as contrasted to the imagining of what it would be like. Thank you

It is a good overview of how the society works when finding its way through change and hope

I think the book is a well written and interesting way of describing the events which happened in Albania as well as giving an insight into how different countries find their way through changing their governments

So good

Educational, interesting, thought provoking. Hard to put down and left me wanting to know more.

Insightful

This book is as insightful as it is moving, deftly weaving together family history, national history, and world history in a powerful reflection on the meaning of freedom.

Great read!

I enjoyed this book. Given the rising inequality in the world today, this book addressed the socialism and even capitalism in a way I hadn't heard before. Highly recommend!

Great Story, Great Narration

Really enjoyed this one. Reads like a novel but provides a nuanced look at the politics of the transition from socialism to neoliberalism and the aftermath of shock therapy. Love the stories of her youth, her schooling, and the contrast between the ideologies of her mother, father, and grandmother. Just really well done all around. And the narration was excellent.

Incredible.

Thank you Lea for the beautiful book. Great narration, lovable characters, history, and insightful commentary.

Had to read for a class, but now I would recommend it to everyone.

I read this book as part of my Global Development class. I have an international relations background, so I knew of the basic concepts this book was supposed to be about - socialism, communism, the fallout from the USSR’s collapse - but the book really opened my eyes to the realities of the situation. I have never consumed media in which the author details their experience believing and trusting in these systems, and then having to reconsider their reality. The way Ypi writes, and Babbage narrates, is not just highly informative, but also keeps you engaged. Ypi found the perfect balance between academic and compelling. I feel that Ypi targeted the perfect audience for her cause, which, as she says in the epilogue, is to explain and continue the struggle. I went from knowing virtually nothing about Albania and thinking I knew a lot about the fall of socialism to really reconsidering my ideas and doing a lot of research. This is one of the most impactful books I have read during my undergrad, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.