Larg dhe mes njerezve. Kujtime internimi 1973-1990

For 17 years, Liri Lubonja lived as an exile in northern Albania, in a small town and later in a remote village, where she had to report to the police station every day. The communist regime under dictator Enver Hoxha had sent her into exile in 1973 because her husband and eldest son had been imprisoned for political reasons. Todi Lubonja was removed as director of state television as part of an internal party purge and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Liri and Todi’s son, Fatos Lubonja, was also imprisoned and was only released in 1991 after the fall of the communist regime. In her memoirs, Liri Lubonja describes everyday life in socialist Albania as a woman, as an intellectual, as an outcast on the margins of society. She vividly portrays the people among whom she lives: neighbours, farmers, workers and functionaries. She analyses the oppressive mechanisms of surveillance, the struggle for self-respect and family cohesion, but also the class differences that still exist in rural Albania.