Modern Albania

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. “Assiduously researched, compulsively readable.” — LA Review of Books “A richly woven work of narrative nonfiction.” — The Spectator “An intimate portrait of the country.” — Foreign Affairs In the early 1990s, Europe’s most closed and repressive state began a startling transformation. After forty years of Communist isolation, Albanians who had been banned from practicing religion, traveling abroad, or even wearing jeans suddenly found themselves devouring the outside world. They opened cafés, launched newspapers, reopened churches and mosques—and blasted previously banned rock music in the streets. Modern Albania offers a vivid, ground-level history of this dramatic change. It brings to life the final days of the Stalinist regime, the first student protests, the crash of massive pyramid schemes, the war in neighboring Kosovo, and Albania’s complex relationship with the United States. Based on three decades of firsthand work in Albania, more than 200 interviews with key figures—including former Politburo members, intelligence agents, opposition leaders, diplomats, and founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army—and hundreds of previously secret government documents from Albania and the U.S., this book provides a rare front-row seat to the last battle of Cold War Europe. Explore the declassified documents, photos, videos, and more at: www.modern-albania.com