A Philosopher After All

Albania’s isolation, long the source of its fascination to outsiders, came to an end in 2021. That year, the political theorist Lea Ypi, a professor at the London School of Economics, published Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History. Covering Ypi’s childhood in 1980s and 1990s Albania, the bestselling memoir made its author into a global celebrity and has likely done more to bring the Balkan nation into the international spotlight than the proliferating WizzAir lines into Tirana. Now a cultural export on par with the voluminous works of the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, Ypi’s yarn hasn’t just been a hit with the hordes flowing into the up-and-coming tourist destination—Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has been known to hand out copies to visiting dignitaries.