Bøger af Lea Ypi

”Jeg spurgte aldrig mig selv om betydningen af frihed, før den dag jeg krammede Stalin. Tæt på var han meget højere, end jeg havde regnet med.” - fra bogenLea Ypi er vokset op i det kommunistiske Albanien. Det var et land præget af knaphed, politiske henrettelser og hemmeligt politi. Og der, Ypi havde hjemme. Folk var lige, naboer hjalp hinanden, og man forventede, at de nye generationer ville skabe en bedre fremtid.Efter murens fald forandrede alt sig. Statuerne af Stalin og Hoxha blev væltet, og folk kunne nu stemme og tilbede de guder, de ville. Men arbejdspladser forsvandt og tusinder forsøgte at flygte til Italien. Pyramidespil fik landet til at gå statsbankerot og ledte til voldelig konflikt.Efterhånden som en generations forhåbninger blev afløst af en ny generations desillusion, begyndte Ypi at sætte spørgsmålstegn ved, hvad frihed overhovedet vil sige. Fri er et fængslende erindringsværk om at blive voksen midt i voldsomme politiske omvæltninger.Lydbogen er indlæst af Thea Boel Gjerum.

When she was eleven years old, Lea Ypi witnessed the end of the world. At least from the end of a world. In 1990, the communist regime in Albania, the last bastion of Stalinism in Europe, collapsed. She, indoctrinated at school, did not understand why the statues of Stalin and Hoxha were being torn down, but with the monuments, secrets, and silences also fell: the population control mechanisms were revealed, the murders of the secret police... The change in the political system gave way to democracy, but not everything was rosy. The transition towards liberalism meant the restructuring of the economy, the massive loss of jobs, the wave of migration to Italy, corruption, and the bankruptcy of the country... A mixture of memories, historical essay, and sociopolitical reflection, this book reflects, from the personal experience, a convulsive moment of political transformation that did not necessarily lead to justice and freedom.

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?

”Jeg spurgte aldrig mig selv om betydningen af frihed, før den dag jeg krammede Stalin. Tæt på var han meget højere, end jeg havde regnet med.” - fra bogenLea Ypi er vokset op i det kommunistiske Albanien. Det var et land præget af knaphed, politiske henrettelser og hemmeligt politi. Og der, Ypi havde hjemme. Folk var lige, naboer hjalp hinanden, og man forventede, at de nye generationer ville skabe en bedre fremtid.Efter murens fald forandrede alt sig. Statuerne af Stalin og Hoxha blev væltet, og folk kunne nu stemme og tilbede de guder, de ville. Men arbejdspladser forsvandt og tusinder forsøgte at flygte til Italien. Pyramidespil fik landet til at gå statsbankerot og ledte til voldelig konflikt.Efterhånden som en generations forhåbninger blev afløst af en ny generations desillusion, begyndte Ypi at sætte spørgsmålstegn ved, hvad frihed overhovedet vil sige. "Fri" er et fængslende erindringsværk om at blive voksen midt i voldsomme politiske omvæltninger.