The author of Free returns to Foyles for an evening of conversation with Olivia Sudjic about Indignity, Ypi’s epic and intimate investigation into dignity and historical injustice.
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. What follows is a thrilling reimagining of the past, moving between the vanished world of Ottoman aristocracy, the making of modern Greece and Albania, the horrors of war and the dawn of communism in the Balkans. While investigating the truth about her family, Ypi grapples with uncertainty, and the fragility of truth.
Lea Ypi holds the Ralph Miliband Chair in Politics and Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Her first trade book, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History won the Ondaatje Prize and the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Costa Biography Award.
Olivia Sudjic is the author of the novels Sympathy and Asylum Road. She is also the author of the acclaimed essay, Exposure, published by Peninsula Press. In 2023 Sudjic was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.
The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Your ticket includes a complimentary glass of wine.
Image Credits: Ypi by Mihaela Noroc
