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Free : a child and a country at the end of history / Lea Ypi.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : W. W. Norton & Company, 2022Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First American editionDescription: 267 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780393867732
  • 0393867730
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Stalin -- The other Ypi -- 471: a brief biography -- Uncle Enver is dead -- Coca-Cola cans -- Comrade Mamuazel -- They smell of sun cream -- Brigatista -- Ahmet got his degree -- The end of history -- Grey socks -- A letter from Athens -- Everyone wants to leave -- Competitive games -- I always carried a knife -- It's all part of civil society -- The crocodile -- Structural reforms -- Don't cry -- Like the rest of Europe -- Philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it.
Summary: "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, Lea found herself questioning what "freedom" really means. With acute insight and wit, Lea Ypi traces the perils of ideology, and what people need to flourish"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library Biography YPI, L. Y85 Available 33111010632921
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography YPI, L. Y85 Available 33111010783542
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library Biography YPI, L. Y85 Available 33111009872355
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Family and nation formed a reliable bedrock of security for precocious 11-year-old Lea Ypi. She was a Young Pioneer, helping to lead her country toward the future of perfect freedom promised by the leaders of her country, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. Then, almost overnight, the Berlin Wall fell and the pillars of her society toppled. The local statue of Stalin, whom she had believed to be a kindly leader who loved children, was beheaded by student protestors.

Uncomfortable truths about her family's background emerged. Lea learned that when her parents and neighbors had spoken in whispers of friends going to "university" or relatives "dropping out," they meant something much more sinister. As she learned the truth about her family's past, her best friend fled the country. Together with neighboring post-Communist states, Albania began a messy transition to join the "free markets" of the Western world: a dystopia of pyramid schemes, organized crime, and sex trafficking. Her father, despite his radical left-wing convictions, was forced to fire workers; her mother became a conservative politician on the model of Margaret Thatcher. Lea's typical teen concerns about relationships and the future were shot through with the existential: the nation was engulfed in civil war.

Ypi's outstanding literary gifts enable her to weave together this colorful, tumultuous coming-of-age story in a time of social upheaval with thoughtful, fresh, and invigorating perspective on the relation between the personal and the political, and on deep questions about freedom: What does freedom consist of, and for whom? What conditions foster it? Who among us is truly free?

First published in UK with subtitle: coming of age at the end of history.

Stalin -- The other Ypi -- 471: a brief biography -- Uncle Enver is dead -- Coca-Cola cans -- Comrade Mamuazel -- They smell of sun cream -- Brigatista -- Ahmet got his degree -- The end of history -- Grey socks -- A letter from Athens -- Everyone wants to leave -- Competitive games -- I always carried a knife -- It's all part of civil society -- The crocodile -- Structural reforms -- Don't cry -- Like the rest of Europe -- Philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it.

"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, Lea found herself questioning what "freedom" really means. With acute insight and wit, Lea Ypi traces the perils of ideology, and what people need to flourish"-- Provided by publisher.

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