the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt three)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

Alia’s first major project was to honor his teacher and guide. Hoxha statues rose in Tirana and other towns. In the center of the capital came the colossal white marble pyramid to house the Enver Hoxha Museum.

As statues rose, the economy sank. The government rationed meat, cheese, coffee, butter, and oil, and the quality of those goods got worse. Shoppers stood in lines from 5:00 a.m., and often went home empty-handed. The only vegetable readily available was leeks, and it became a symbol of Albania’s despair. Collectivized to the extreme, the economy had exhausted its possibilities, like a human body burning muscle and fat to survive.

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt two)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

In 1967 Hoxha banned religion, as if he were jealous that someone had faith in a force higher than him. He ordered the destruction of mosques, churches, and cloisters and their conversion into sports halls or warehouses. The Catholic cathedral in Shkoder became a basketball arena with “Glory Marxism-Leninism” inscribed on the court in large red letters. Albania was never a religious country, but Hoxha officially declared it the world’s first atheist state. Albanians buried sacred relics or hid them in their homes, where they stayed until freedom of religion returned in 1990.

After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Hoxha withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, although Albania had not attended a meeting for years. The Ministry of Defense began a colossal project to build an estimated seven hundred thousand concrete, steel-reinforced bunkers. The military put the concrete mushrooms along the coast and borders, on mountain tops, farms, and even city streets. Arrow tips were mounted atop fence posts to thwart parachutists. Too expensive to remove, the bunkers dotted the country years after communism’s fall. Lovers visited them for trysts and poor families used them as homes. Farmers who got back nationalized property spoke of how many bunkers they had received.

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt one)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

Under Italian rule, Hoxha lost his teaching job. He moved to Tirana—at the time with less than twenty thousand people—and opened a tobacco shop, which became the secret meeting place of the budding communist movement. The Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito offered help, and under his tutelage the Albanian Communist Party was founded in November 1941. Enver Hoxha, then thirty-three years old, became secretary general. He held the position for the next forty-four years.

the last book I ever read (Flesh: A Novel by David Szalay, excerpt seven)

from Flesh: A Novel (2025 Booker Prize Winner) by David Szalay:

He desperately wants to believe that his son still exists—still exists in some actual sense, not just as a memory—and that what happened to him is somehow part of some larger plan or scheme, and not just a meaningless single event.

What these people believe seems to make that possible. He assumes that that’s what drew his mother here, or something like it. She has never shown any interest in this sort of thing until now. So he understands why she comes here and how it might help here.

He also understands, after a few weeks, that it won’t be able to help him.

the last book I ever read (Flesh: A Novel by David Szalay, excerpt six)

from Flesh: A Novel (2025 Booker Prize Winner) by David Szalay:

They talk for a few more minutes, and then they’re interrupted by the arrival of the main course, at which point the minister turns to the person on the other side of him and István finds himself having to engage with his own other neighbor, an elderly lady who wants something done about immigration.

She’s embarrassed when she understands, after a minute or two, that István is himself a foreigner.

“I don’t mean you, of course,” she says, putting a hand on his arm.

“No, of course nor,” István says.

“We need people like you.”

“Well,” he says. “It’s nice of you to say so.”

“You’re not the problem.”

“I hope not.”

the last book I ever read (Flesh: A Novel by David Szalay, excerpt five)

from Flesh: A Novel (2025 Booker Prize Winner) by David Szalay:

He stands up and goes to one of the windows. A cloud has covered the sun. The water of the lake looks dark and still.

“Have you thought of that?”

“Yes, I’ve thought of that,” he says. Which is true, although it’s also true that he has more often avoided thinking about it.

There’s a long silence.

“You need to do something,” she says.

“I know,” he says.

the last book I ever read (Flesh: A Novel by David Szalay, excerpt four)

from Flesh: A Novel (2025 Booker Prize Winner) by David Szalay:

They walk away.

He watches them go and lights a cigarette.

The last patrons leave at around three thirty. He helps to throw them out. It smells of sweat down there and feels like a sauna after the damp freshness of the street. The lights are on, which makes the place look small. The main stage and the “private” ones at the sides look small and shabby. As he makes his way to Freddy’s office, he passes a few of the girls, leaving in tracksuits and raincoats, with earbuds in their ears and don’t-even-think-about-talking-to-me expressions on their faces.

He doesn’t talk to them.