Within the former Eastern bloc, there were two particular dictatorships - ´of the people´ - that were frustratingly absurd: one was Ceaușescu´s (the illiterate dictator and his wife) Romania; the other one was Albania. But as Lea Ypi mentioned at the end of her coming of age memoir Free ´people never make history under circumstances they choose´.

Enver Hoxha, the Albanian dictator, ruled for four decades and his natural death slowly triggered changes with a terrific impact in the whole region - from the Balkans to Italy, where desperate Albanians who lost all their savings and hopes tried to escape by overcrowded boats. As a child experiencing the transition through her own family story and histories, Ypi took note of the general trends and world events - in a similar manner with Ernaux in The Years, letting the personal to interfer naturally with the global - while observing the changes within her familiar realm: people disappearing, the secret language of returning from prison terms, the rewritten biographies (´Biographies were carefully separated into good and bad, better or worse, clean or stained, relevant or irrelevant, transparent or confusing, suspicious or trustworthy, those that needed to be remembered and those that needed to be forgotten´).

The intensity of the political and personal times is reproduced through the voice of a young girl trying to make sense of the changes, while following her path of her own personal, intimate changes. It doesn´t try to be philosophical and reflect on things past, but it does maintain its authentic voice through a simple account of a complex reality. Words, like ´free´ the title of the memoir, are defined and re-defined by their contextual use. Or the Marxism, ideologized often, rarely studied and understood.

For the political scientist curious and anyone interested in post-communist memoirs, Free by Lea Ypi is a reference lecture for both the personal and general take. A free testimony in her own words.

Sorry for the delay in reviewing this book, I enjoyed it, difficult and fascinating, I remember the Albanian Refugees coming to live in containers in the little town I grew up in, in Germany, Many of my friends went on to date, marry, have children with these men who appeared over night, I also remember some fighting hard to remain in the country, This book gives my mind and heart some insight as to how and why they came, rather than the beat of the jungle drum, Thank you. Recommended.

Life behind, and outside, The Iron Curtain 3

Lea Ypi recounts the time when Albania’s identity was that of the most secretive, repressive, authoritarian country in Europe. Long after the death of Stalin, when Russia was still deeply communist but small moves were being made away from a dictatorship so absolute, so brutal, so under the iron fist of a repressive paranoid and powerful leader, Enver Hoxha was maintaining that killing, deadly ideological purity in his country. Forming closer links with China, Hoxha turned his country into an officially atheist state. Ypi was 6 when he died, in 1985, The country maintained its ideological isolationism by seeing itself as holder of purity, and a bastion against the world. Political fundamentalism, I suppose. Curiously, I’m currently reading an autobiography of someone who grew up inside a religious cult. The same us and them psychology of extremism.

However, it must also be noted that Hoxha had dragged his country, the poorest in Europe, into modernisation during his 40 year iron fist rule – improving the country’s health, raising literacy rates, building railways, and, with his outlawing of religion, making positive changes to the lives of women, bringing emancipation, and economic growth

Interestingly, Ypi does not (as one might assume someone having lived behind the curtain do) laud the rapid ‘freedom’ of market economy which happened after the collapse of communism across Europe, and the break-up of the Soviet Union. This sudden move from collectivism to capitalism crashed the economy.

This is an interesting book, but Ypi’s professional background meant I never quite was taken inside her individual experience, but was always aware that she is an academic – she is Professor of Political Theory in the Government Department at the LSE. Inevitably, that has the effect of her ‘standing outside, observing’, so, for me, that is how I read.

This was a great contrast to a book written by another writer who lived within repressive ideology, stepped outside it, lives in another country, and through a different tradition has learned to observe herself and her changes, but in a far more personal engagement with her own past, present, future. I am always drawn to individual stories, and want to engage and find empathic connection with the teller.

The writer I refer to in the above paragraph is Zhu Xiao-Mei, writer and, primarily, musician, the book The Secret Piano. Participant and victim of the Cultural Revoloution, she spent time in Mao’s Labour Camps. Eventually, leaving China, and now resident in France, part of her personal journey involved Taoism, and that spiritual discipline enables the most deeply personal to be engaged with, whilst simultaneously observing self, in a way which really lays bare the writer’s soul, without self-indulgence. The deeply subjective and the objective at a point of balance.

I am sure that those who don’t need to connect with the individual storyteller in the way I always want to – however academic the book, may find this a more engaging book than I did.

The challenge is mine, not Ypi’s, but it might also be a challenge for others with the same demands as I have

An insightful and highly original memoir. A moving and witty story about growing up in Albania in the final days of the last Stalinist outpost of the 20th century.

Thank you to Penguin Random House UK and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of Free by Lea Ypi.

This was an insightful book which taught me about a war that I knew very little about and how it impacted ordinary citizens.
The retelling of the author's childhood was fascinating and drew me in immediately. I was engaged with the characters mentioned and felt a sense of knowing the people more intimately after reading the book.

This was a very interesting, absorbing book about the author's childhood and teenage years growing up in Albania in the 1980s and 1990s under communism. A very insightful read.

A wonderful and thought provoking insight into what it means to live in a Communist country and also what happens when that society unravels and the author has to rethink everything she has known and grown up with.

A thought provoking and interesting memoir that was Informative without being one sided. I knew little about Albania before reading this and I found it fascinating to read. It is written in a way that keeps you interested, it drew me in and I have learned so much from this book. Lea Ypi writes beautifully and takes us on a journey through her childhood. At times shocking and traumatic. It I particularly found the diary extracts interesting but heart breaking.

Synopsis

'We never lose our inner freedom; the freedom to do what is right'

Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.

Then, in December 1990, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict. As one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.

Lea Ypi's memoir begins in 1990 with the fall of communism in Albania. As a 10 year old child, Lea's faith in the regime was unwavering and realisation that her parents were never as fervently supportive of the system as they had led her to believe is troubling for her to process. The memoir charts the rapid changes that followed such as the first democratic elections, Lea's mother's attempts to reclaim her family's seized assets, the doomed of many Albanian's to migrate to Italy and the collapse of the pyramid schemes and subsequent civil war.

I knew very little about Albania before I picked this up and I found it an informative read with a surprising warmth and humour, despite some of the very tragic events depicted. It's a thought-provoking meditation on the concept of freedom and takes a balanced view of both socialism and capitalism.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy.

CW: animal cruelty, bullying, migration, Otranto tragedy

Free starts out in the late 1980s/early 1990s just around the time that communism collapsed in Albania.

The author was 11 at the time, and documents her thoughts and feelings from that time period.

How safe she felt is a testament to her family - she could easily have grown up in terror, but they maintained a safe and happy home environment for her despite their disdain for their Government, which they never hid but also didn't broadcast for fear of repurcussion (there's a scene where young Lea asks her parents in front of company why they don't have a framed picture of their leader like every other family and when I tell you my heart dropped). Her family did a wonderful job of protecting her but also not allowing her to grow up disillusioned.

There's a very dark humour here, which was unexpected but very welcome. It brings a lightness, especially when talking about the problems Socialism brought with it, and the issues affecting the people under a communist ruler.

Lea's diaries show how fast things changed, there's a notable shift in tone towards the end of the book.

This was fascinating, Albania isn't a country I know very much about, so it was wonderful to read of the author's lived experience and I'm really glad I requested this on Netgalley. Thank you to the publisher for accepting my request.

Great insight into how historical events shaped this person's life. A completely different perspective. Told with humour but also quite heart breaking at times.

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History tells author Lea Ypi and her family's story of their experience of end of communism in Albania in 1990. Ypi grew up in Albania's second most populous city, Durrës, and this memoir follows her life growing up under Enver Hoxha's rule in the early/mid 80s to post-Communist Albania in the early to mid 90s when the first free elections were held.

The author's childhood recollections and the historical experiences of her family members and their life under communism make for eye-opening reading in many ways, with the anecdote of the coveted empty Coca Cola can (of the cover of the UK edition) and drama that surrounded its acquisition being one of the more memorable moments.

I sometimes struggle with child narrators, and I think it's particularly challenging to write a successful memoir which focuses so much on childhood memories. The book succeeds in this regard in some respects, but there were a few too many protracted conversations between Lea and her friends which I felt didn't add much to the narrative in my view. We are introduced to the contradictions of life under communism from the experience and point of view of a child - and I can see why the author decided to present her story in this way but it didn't quite work for me. I preferred the later sections where she is older and we learn more about her parents and grandparents' backgrounds, which made for an illuminating contrast to Lea's own experiences.

(A bit of a side note but my last trip abroad was to Albania (Tirana, Durrës and Kruje) in February 2020 and I'd highly recommend it as a holiday destination. It's really not like anywhere else I've ever been - in a good way!)

A memoir that will stay with me for a long time.
The author is about my age (early 40s) and writes of her time growing up in Albania. It is fantastically well written told through the eyes of a child, growing up in a closed country under socialism. There are many funny moments as well as many sad ones.
Then I can't even imagine, just as she is about to grow up everything you think you know is pretty much reversed and even your own biography isn't what it seemed.
There is so much to think about here in terms of socialism, capitalism, feminism, equality and what it means to be free.

This was one of those books that sucked me in from the beginning and didn’t let go until I finished! I thought it was well written, with absolutely flawlessly done characters, and absolutely unputdownable.
The storyline was brilliant and fascinating you won't want to miss this novel!

My first book for 2022.

“Biography” is something important to Lea Ypi’s family during the time she grew up in communist Albania. At the moment, we could see her “biography” as merely an information, a professor in political theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science who has written numerous publications in Marxism and critical theory. But during the time she grew up, there was much stuff in her family that does not have any direct answer, to which her family only referred to the information as “biography”. Her father cannot study maths at university because of “biography”. Their parents got married to each other because of “biography”. Later on, she would learn some facts only after communism collapsed in Albania in 1991, with some truths coming to the surface.

People used disguised terms such as “got a degree” for being released from prison, or “doing research” for serving sentences inside prison, to protect themselves. Little Lea often got bullied by her peers at school for sharing the same surname with the quisling prime minister Xhafer Ypi, who transferred government authorities in Albania to the occupying Axis power, making Albania an Italian Protectorate during the Second World War. She had a hard time explaining “the Other Ypi” doesn’t have any family relation whatsoever to her. Yet the truth would come to the surface as Nini, her grandmother, told the whole story to her after the fall of communism that the former prime minister was indeed her great-grandfather, and her grandfather was “doing research” for 15 years only due to the fact of his blood relation to the prime minister despite the fact that he was against fascist belief. The concept of “guilty by association” was really close to the heart of Lea’s family.

Echoing the title, the book provides an interesting debate on the concept of freedom. Life under communism is often portrayed as “unfree” with the absence of freedom of expression and freedom of movement. But to little Lea who only made sense of her world with the education she got under the communist rule, she was as free as she could be, feeling devoted to the ideas of Enver Hoxha, internalising Marxist concepts as part of her identity. In this regard, she was free, echoing Jenny Erpenbeck in her memoir Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces in which she describes the concept of freedom for a child growing up in East Berlin. Jenny was also as free as she could be, seeing the backdrop of the Berlin Wall as the end of the world, yet she was able to grow up, experience happy and sad moments too in a socialist society just like a child grew up anywhere else.

The parallel between Lea’s and Jenny’s stories is that they question the nature of “freedom” which appeared after the fall of communism.
Freedom to travel, “But what if I don’t have money to travel?”
Freedom of expression, “But what if nobody cares about my opinion?”
Freedom to be what I want, “But what if I don’t really know what I want to be or need?”
In this regard, it seems as though freedom is a relative conception being imposed by the winning side of history.

And history in this matter is something debatable too. The subtitle of the book contains the phrase “the end of history”, which I take as a subtle reference to Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man, something which I think Lea Ypi is familiar with given her background as a professor in political theory. Francis Fukuyama opines in his book, that humanity has finally come to the “end of history” with the collapse of communism in 1991 and the victory of liberal democracy as a political system with fewer contradictions and could serve the desire of mankind. Yet in Albania, we witnessed a large conflict in 1997 in the form of the Albanian Civil War following the collapse of the democratic institutions to serve the needs of the Albanians. For Lea Ypi, it is sufficient to merely signify the year “1997” to mention the conflict which became one of the turning points of her life. Excerpts from the Civil War in this book is one of the most interesting parts of the book, with Lea Ypi citing her diary entries from that time in verbatim, providing readers with the exact mental states of the author at that particular period.

This memoir is complementary with Małgorzata Rejmer’s oral history Mud Sweeter Than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania, both books happened to be published in English in 2021 and provide voices to the Albanians who lived under communism. 30 years after the “end of history”, both books are still relevant to read. Marxism as an idea lives on to the twenty-first century, and there are some parts of Marxist ideas that are still worth to be discussed and remains true to this age. However, there’s also the need to turn back and look at the experiences of people living in a society in which ideas become a way of life that defined their existence.

A stunning memoir that I’ve already recommended to so many friends and customers. Ypi takes the measure of the emotional toll that growing up in socialist Albania exerted upon her. Her childish naivety is interspersed with important historical events. An incredibly relevant book that highlights how childhood is greatly effected by the social and political choices of the adults that hold the power.

Free is a fascinating look at the end of Communism in Albania and what happened afterwards, told through the eyes of a (then) pre-teen.

As someone who went into the book knowing nothing of Albania and that period for the country - and who hadn't read the full blurb before reading - the way the book was told through the eyes of a child was fascinating; in particular, I loved how the author managed to convey how she felt about Communism and life 'before' without bringing in the knowledge and understanding they would get later. This means, for a reader going into the subject relatively 'cold', the first half about life under Communism feels quite whimsical and some of the reveals and information that comes later on in the book are really powerful. It also means you don't need to know much about the history going in to enjoy the book and get into the story.

Ypi writes clearly but engagingly, really bringing to life events and the people who were a part of her life. I'd thoroughly recommend to anyone interested in politics, history, learning more about other cultures and just generally interesting autobiographies, told in a captivating way.

A brilliant memoir that made me realise how embarrassingly little I knew of this time in history, as well as the geographical area in which it takes place. Ypi’s matter-of-fact writing style perfectly communicates the bizarre and jarring situation she finds herself in, and her insight regarding capitalism, socialism, and communism is fascinatingly nuanced.

A wry but informative look at life after the fall of the Iron Curtain - great for those who enjoyed memoirs such as EDUCATED by Tara Westover.

Growing up in Communist Albania, Lea Ypi was unaware of what life was like in the outside world. Born in 1979 when the country had already disassociated itself from other Communist regimes and was firmly under the control of dictator Enver Hoxha, Albania was completely isolated and its citizens told that it was the only country standing up against the wicked empires of both east and west. Ypi grew up to believe that her country was the best. There was no reason not to believe it and her parents protected her from any dissent or doubt. So she grew up as a zealous young communist until the 1990s when one-party socialism gave way to a completely different multi-party state and in this perceptive, insightful memoir Ypi describes just what this new world felt like, when almost overnight all the old certainties disappeared. The human cost of this new found freedom was soon in evidence – protests, shootings, civil war, massive emigration and a new economic system. So much to come to terms with. The book is an excellent mesh of the personal with the political and I learnt a lot from it. Albania doesn’t seem to have the attention that other Balkan states receive and this is a welcome addition to the literature of that little known and poorly understood county.