Growing up in Albania

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History

"Where am I in History" Series 002
Named Book of the Year by 24 media outlets worldwide and sweeping six nonfiction awards, renowned political philosophy professor Lea Upi reflects on this masterpiece, "the best Balkan memoir in decades."
A coming-of-age story of a young girl who witnessed the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe. In an uncertain world, she looks back on how history has shaped individual lives, and in the pain of thought, she searches for the meaning of freedom.
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Introduction
Born in 1979, Lea Upi grew up in Albania, a country in Eastern Europe with a unique history and little known to outsiders. In those days, the people there cherished a utopian ideal, virtually inaccessible to outsiders and almost impossible to leave. It was a place of scarcity, queues for groceries, and a place filled with secrets and unspeakable things. For Lea, it was home, where neighbors supported each other and elders expected their children to create a better world. It was a place where she felt a sense of community and hope.
In December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. Almost overnight, people were free to vote and wear whatever they pleased. There was nothing to fear anymore. But factories closed, jobs vanished, and many fled on crowded boats to Italy, only to be sent back. A predatory pyramid scheme ultimately bankrupted the country and led to violent conflict. As one generation's aspirations become another's illusions and family secrets are revealed, Léa embarks on a quest to discover the true meaning of freedom.
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Editor's Recommendation ※ Authoritative awards × recommendations from big names × important media × reader reputation, a documentary masterpiece that has sparked global discussion.
Winner & finalist of 6 non-fiction awards | Authorized for translation into 30 languages ​​worldwide;
Recommended by Tara Westover, Liang Wendao, the authors of "You Should Fly to Your Mountain Like a Bird", and Bo Lin, the author of "The Temptation of Borders";
Ke Jing, professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University and expert on Albania and the Balkans, recommended this article;
Sweeping the annual book lists of 24 global media outlets including The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times;
Over 10,000 people on Goodreads gave it a high score of 4+ | The original Douban reader reviews gave it a high score of 9.6, with rave reviews.
※ A masterpiece that interweaves personal destiny with the current of history, "the best memoir of the Balkans in decades."
Internationally acclaimed political philosopher Lea Upi's debut work for the general public has become an instant hit. Some say she's a potential Hollywood screenwriter whose career as a philosopher has held her back! Her fresh narrative brings the history of her country to life, offering us a unique perspective. Albania, a country we may know little about but with which we share so many similarities, is no longer far away.
※ With the pen of a master novelist, this novel outlines an extraordinary growth story that witnessed the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe.
These fable-like short stories, recreating vivid scenes and dialogues, connect the confusions and insights of childhood and adolescence. The reader becomes a child, tangled in lies and truth, immersed in a whirlwind of black humor, absurdity, and pathos. It reads like "Jojo Rabbit" meets "Growing Up in Iran," or even an Albanian version of "You Should Fly to Your Mountain Like a Bird." Through its ingenious narrative, her story becomes the story of each of us.
※ Follow the philosopher, through the fog and ruins of the times, and experience a baptism of life and ideas.
Once an innocent girl, now a scholar, she revisits the specific faces swept up in the current, allowing us to appreciate the subtle implications of various concepts and see how the ever-changing hand of history shapes individual lives. Her intellectual reflections, born from personal experience, remain resonant and inspiring across time and space.
※ A sharp and timely warning: How can we live meaningfully today when history is far from over?
“When we don’t know how to think about the future, we must look back to the past.” Reflecting on her life, caring for the present and the future, Laia, while questioning the meaning of freedom, also voices hope in a declining age: “If I do nothing, their efforts (their predecessors) will be in vain, and their lives will seem meaningless.”
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Award-winning records
2024 Ridenhour Book Prize
2022 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Medal Winners
2021 Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Winner
2022 Gordon Burne Prize Finalists
2021 Costa Best First Biography Finalist
2021 Baillie Gifford Award finalist, selected as Book of the Year by 24 media outlets worldwide, including The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The Times Literary Supplement🎙️
Recommended by Media & Celebrities: Reading and rereading Léa Upi's book, we felt strongly that its central questions—politics, personal history, the meaning of freedom—are deeply relevant to our lives today. How do nations dream of themselves, and how do individuals think about themselves within these fantasies? How do we experience history, and how is it institutionalized? Upi is a master at juxtaposing these grand narratives with personal ones—family secrets and political crises. In reviewing this book, we repeatedly returned to history's long shadows, asking what darkness lurks in unquestioned places.
— Ondaatje judge for the 2022 Royal Society of Literature Lea Upi’s memoir vividly depicts the confusion of her childhood and adolescence amidst the lies, surreal weirdness, and danger she experienced during Albania’s harsh rule and the chaos of the post-1990s.
- Johnny DeFalbe, judge of the 2021 Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Award. When the whole world turns a blind eye to Albania, this new masterpiece shows us the truth about human nature in politics over the past hundred years... It reveals one truth after another, about family and country, as if it came from the hands of a master of novels, and like entering a Tolstoy novel.
—Amy Wilentz, author of Farewell, Fred Voodoo This remarkable coming-of-age story could be called an Albanian version of Fly to Your Mountain, but it is also much more than that.
—David Runciman, author of How Democracy Ends This book is more than a historical account of a country we hardly know or care about… Just as the author and his family watched empires crumble along with their entire reality, we too live in catastrophic times. The geopolitical certainties that have sheltered us for the past century, for better or for worse—the United States, the United Kingdom, and most recently the European Union—are in various stages of collapse or decay. This, Uppie warns us, is what it feels like when the levees break.
—Ed O'Laughlin, The Irish Times
Léa Upi’s novel is the first book since Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend that I’ve pushed, insisted on, into my family, friends, and colleagues.
—Ruth Scull, The Observer Magazine "Woopi has woven magic into this book. I was enchanted from beginning to end."
—Laura Hackett, The Sunday Times
Unlike other Eastern European memoirs that are full of "nostalgia", Upi's work is full of brilliant insight, political subtlety, and most importantly, it is funny.
—The Guardian
A story of missed opportunities, disillusionment and hope…it ultimately invites readers to ask themselves what the meaning of freedom is.
——History Today
The best Balkan memoir in decades.
——Emerging Europe

2024-09-01

上海三联书店

Houlang, Houlang Literature

344

9787542684370