Audiobooks by Lea Ypi

[Spanish] - Libre

"Cuando era una niña, con apenas once años, Lea Ypi fue testigo del fin del mundo. Al menos del fin de un mundo. En 1990 el régimen comunista de Albania, el último bastión del estalinismo en Europa, se desplomó. Ella, adoctrinada en la escuela, no entendía por qué se derribaban las estatuas de Stalin y Hoxha, pero con los monumentos cayeron también los secretos y los silencios: se desvelaron los mecanismos de control de la población, los asesinatos de la policía secreta... El cambio de sistema político dio paso a la democracia, pero no todo fue color de rosa. La transición hacia el liberalismo supuso la reestructuración de la economía, la pérdida masiva de empleos, la oleada migratoria hacia Italia, la corrupción y la quiebra del país. En el entorno familiar, ese período trajo sorpresas inauditas para Lea: descubrió qué eran las «universidades» en las que supuestamente habían «estudiado» sus padres y por qué estos hablaban en clave o en susurros; supo que un antepasado había formado parte de un gobierno anterior al comunismo y que a la familia le habían expropiado sus bienes. Mezcla de memorias, ensayo histórico y reflexión sociopolítica, con el añadido de una prosa de soberbia factura literaria y pinceladas de un humor tendente al absurdo –como no podía ser de otra manera, dado el lugar y tiempo que se retrata–, Libre es de una lucidez deslumbrante: refleja, desde la experiencia personal, un momento convulso de transformación política que no necesariamente desembocó en justicia y libertad."

Lea Ypi (Author), Isa Puchol (Narrator)

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Indignity: A Life Reimagined

"Brought to you by Penguin. An imaginative investigation into historical injustice, dignity and truth, told through the story of a family from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the dawn of Communism in the Balkans ‘There is something about the human spirit, she would say, that withstands all attempts at offence, injury or humiliation … we call it dignity’ When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the Alps in 1941 posted by a stranger on social media, she is faced with unsettling questions. Growing up, she was told records of her grandmother’s youth were destroyed in the early days of communism in Albania. But there Leman was with her husband, Asllan Ypi: glamorous newlyweds while World War II raged. What follows is a thrilling reimagining of the past, as we are transported to the vanished world of Ottoman aristocracy, the making of modern Greece and Albania, a global financial crisis, the horrors of war and the dawn of communism in the Balkans. While investigating the truth about her family, Ypi grapples with uncertainty. Who is the real Leman Ypi? What made her move to Tirana as a young woman and marry a socialist who sympathized with the Popular Front while his father led a collaborationist government? And why was she smiling in the winter of 1941? By turns epic and intimate, profound and gripping, Indignity explores what it means to survive in an age of extremes. It reveals the fragility of truth, both personal and political, and the cost of decisions made against the tide of history. Through secret police reports of communist spies, court depositions, and Ypi’s memories of her grandmother, we move between present and past, archive and imagination, fact and fiction. Ultimately, she asks, what do we really know about the people closest to us? And with what moral authority do we judge the acts of previous generations? © Lea Ypi 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Lea Ypi (Author), Lea Ypi, Rachel Bavidge (Narrator)

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[Romanian] - Liberă: Un copil și o țară la sfârșitul istoriei

"Volum câștigător al RSL Ondaatje Prize 2022 și finalist al Baillie Gifford Prize și Costa Prize for Memoir and Biography „Cartea aceasta va fi citită mulți ani de acum înainte.' David Runciman „Liberă aduce istoria la viață... și o face într-un fel memorabil, plin de forță.' Tara Westover În Republica Socialistă Albania, o fetiță precoce de 11 ani, Pionier al Patriei, devine peste noapte martoră la dispariția celui mai dur și mai rezistent regim dictatorial comunist din lume: cel al lui Enver Hodja. Deși albanezii se așteaptă ca dărâmarea statuilor lui Hodja și Stalin să marcheze tranziția spre o societate liberă, democratică, anii ce urmează aduc cu ei privatizarea de tipul „terapiei de șoc', imigrația masivă, inflația, jocurile piramidale, totul culminând cu un oribil război civil. Carte a maturizării, Liberă alternează vocea fetiței care credea în figura protectoare a Tătucului Stalin cu cea a profesoarei de marxism, care pune la îndoială „libertatea' adusă de capitalism. Lea Ypi este profesoară de teorie politică la London School of Economics și profesoară de filosofie la Australian National University. Este autoarea mai multor cărți de teorie politică și câștigătoarea multor premii importante în domeniu, cum ar fi British Academy Prize for Excellence in Political Science și Leverhulme Prize for Outstanding Research Achievement. Trăiește la Londra."

Lea Ypi (Author), Ilinca Hărnuț (Narrator)

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Free: Coming of Age at the End of History

"Brought to you by Penguin. Shortlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford prize and the 2021 Costa Biography Award. 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, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 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. Free is an engrossing memoir of coming of age amid political upheaval. With acute insight and wit, Lea Ypi traces the limits of progress and the burden of the past, illuminating the spaces between ideals and reality, and the hopes and fears of people pulled up by the sweep of history. 'Funny, moving but also deadly serious, this book will be read for years to come. . . Beautifully brings together the personal and the political to create an unforgettable account of oppression, freedom and what it means to acquire knowledge about the world' David Runciman © Lea Ypi 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021"

Lea Ypi (Author), Lea Ypi, Rachel Bavidge (Narrator)

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