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oxnard_montalvo's review against another edition
Full of the kind of personal details that make the people written about feel alive and in your living room, looking over your shoulder as you read. Ypi's story starts off viewing all the absurdities of life in Albania from the naive innocence of childhood to disillusioned teenager; and we're there with her, trying to figure out the adults' cryptic conversations, how to navigate the undercurrents of danger and family secrets. Totally absorbing reading.
brisingr's review against another edition
5.0
I am on a quest not to find only 5-stars books, but new favourite books as well. This one came close, mainly because it hit so close to home. While I am not a child of the communist/socialist revolutions, I have been born not long enough after that the regime's repercussions could not be felt. And so, most of this book spoke directly to my own upbringing, to the pain of my own relatives (although even so, in vast different social classes from Ypi's) and to much of the national struggles that all Eastern European states seem to face, still, decades after their cruelest turmoils ended.
My father emphasized that he was sympathetic to all our revolutions but his favourite was the one that had yet to take place.
My father emphasized that he was sympathetic to all our revolutions but his favourite was the one that had yet to take place.
chiarapatsias's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0