Excerpt from Indignity by Lea Ypi, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I take my eyes off the screen. When the email first arrived, reading it made me shiver. Now, I find reassurance in its formality – the fact that, each time I check, the contents remain unchanged: come for an appointment on Tuesday, bring an ID card, mind the security protocol. I particularly appreciate reviewing the names of family members – my grandmother Leman, grandfather Asllan and father Xhafer (or Zafo, as he is known) – the way the list of people is offered to me like a meal-deal, in a spirit of commercial detachment, which is just what I need at this stage. Nothing to feel emotional about, just a few details about a random group of people to whom I was assigned at birth, like discounted food items on offer after the end-of-year festivities.

I turn to the driver: 'I have it here: Unit 4, Skanderbeg Military Garrison.'

He nods with confidence. 'Yes, yes, that's the one. They moved there recently. There was some grant from the Swedish embassy or the Swedish government, or perhaps it was Denmark. One of them, the Great Powers. Actually, now I remember, it was Sweden – would you believe it?'

He raises his eyebrows, then a thought strikes him and his tone shifts abruptly.

'It took these bastards twenty-five years to make the files accessible. Not the Swedes' fault, obviously – they have no idea, they just give the grant, tick a few boxes, done. I mean us, the Albanian side. Twenty-five years since the fall of communism,' he repeats, followed by the same long whistle. 'Obviously, they were waiting for all the spies to die, so they didn't have to punish anyone. Told you: it's the same as it ever was.'

He pauses to light another cigarette. 'Are you going there for work or fun?'

To rescue my grandmother from the trolls, I think. To talk to her. To feel less guilty. To discover why she was smiling in the photograph – the one taken in the winter of 1941, in the depths of the war – and to know if the smile was real. To find the truth or try to imagine it. To discover who betrayed her. To find the honeymoon photos. To write a book. To see if the past is already history, or not quite yet. To see if nothing or everything has changed. Or perhaps simply because I must go, without knowing why. To make myself feel better. Or worse. Or the same.

Excerpted from Indignity by Lea Ypi. Copyright © 2025 by Lea Ypi. Excerpted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.