A memoir about growing up before and after the fall of communism in Albania it has garnered rave reviews in the West, but has sparked "vicious" abuse by a minority of Albanians, says its author.
Free by Lea Ypi, an Albanian Marxist professor of political theory at the London School of Economics, might seem like an unlikely best-seller.
But in its first full month on sale in November, the memoir sold 10,000 copies. It has been shortlisted for Costa's Bio of the Year and will soon be available in 17 languages, including Korean and Mandarin. Despite its criticism of the disastrous impact of market changes in Albania, the book received five-star reviews in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, and was named the Sunday Times book of the year.
But in Albania, the book generated such a torrent of online abuse that Ypi had to appeal to Albanians to stop sending its "offensive, accusatory and defamatory" messages.
She told The Guardian that she generally enjoyed hanging out with her detractors. But he said this abuse was different because it came from people who had not read the book or misunderstood its criticism of capitalism and communism.
The book is told from her perspective as a child in 1980s Albania, when she was taught to worship dictator Enver Hoxha, and her family's dissenting views became clear only after the fall of the regime.
"One of the most important messages in the book is that no matter how oppressive a regime is, it never completely crushes human dignity," he said.
Some of Ypi's Albanian critics have mistaken those ideas for an apology for communism and accused her of experiencing Stockholm syndrome. This has been particularly difficult for Ypi to accept. "It is up to you personally if you have a grandfather who spent 15 years in a communist prison to be told that you are somehow trying to rehabilitate communist murderers," he said.
Part of the reaction has been sexist: Ypi was told in a message that she saw herself "more like a showgirl than an academic." Another brought up an old newspaper clipping that quoted Ypi as an 11-year-old girl expressing her desire to help her country and accused her of turning against herself.
She said: "It is a minority, but it is so vocal, so personal and so cruel, that it affects you so much more than the other responses that have been overwhelmingly positive."
In the book, she relates that she was bullied as a child, in part because she spoke French. "They are exactly the same kind of people who bullied me when I was a child and who are doing it now," she said.
Ypi says much of the criticism came after she released the Albanian version of the book at Hoxha's former home in the capital Tirana. “For me it was like imagining Hoxha in hell, having someone from a dissident family promote a book about Albanian heritage. It was symbolically very powerful, ”he said.
But the irony of the location was lost to some, who feel the property must be destroyed and suspect that Ypi is trying to rehabilitate the dictator.
The presence at the launch of the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, and many of his ministers was also misinterpreted. Ypi said: "I am very critical of the Albanian government, but the people felt that they were being manipulated or appropriated by them."
Such perceptions have even fueled false rumors that Ypi will become the next president of Albania.
She said: “If you keep repeating fake news like that, it almost becomes real news. And then it erodes constructive criticism. What should happen in Enver Hoxha's house is a valid debate, but if you start basing it on fake news and misreading, the debate never happens. "
Ypi, who wrote the book in parallel in English and Albanian, feels that despite all the negative comments online, the book has managed to spark constructive discussions on the merits of socialism and capitalism.
She said: “Through family stories, I try to engage everyone in a great conversation about freedom: my mother has one idea of freedom and my father another. When it works, it opens up great conversations, it doesn't shut them down. And there is a younger generation that is concerned about the kind of system we live in. "
