Dissident

This true story is a warning to America that freedom is fragile, and once lost, it will cost many lives before we may see a change. Born and raised in Communist Albania, the author tells the true story of the persecuted and executed members of her extended family, who also happened to be related to the evil that perpetrated such atrocities in her country, the dictator and the ultimate leader of Albania, Enver Hoxha. The author describes in detail the poverty that a communist regime and a socialist system bring upon people, regardless of their education or wealth--at the same time, telling the struggle of her cousin Musine, who was the first published female writer of Albania and the first chairwoman of a political party. Musine stood before the communist court, never apologizing for fighting for a free and fair election after WWII

Evi Kokalari was born in communist Albania and grew up having no rights to free speech. Twenty members of her family were executed, jailed, and persecuted by the ruthless dictator, Enver Hoxha, to whom the family was related. Upon the fall of the Berlin wall, which signaled the fall of the communist regime and the Soviet block, she migrated to America and joined other members of her extended family that had been left behind once Albania closed its borders in 1945.