Yanis Varoufakis: Raise your soul, Bodley Head, pub date Oct 2, 2025

Most of us probably remember Yanis Varoufakis, an economist, as the former charismatic finance minister of Greece.

 "Raise your soul" with the undertitle " A personal history of resistance" tells the fascinating story of his family, from the 1920ties to the present, with resistence to existing political systems seemingly being a  part of his families DNA.

 Through the biographies of the women in his family who influenced him the most, starting with his grandmother Anna who lived in Egypt and whom I was particularly drawn to,  this is a  portrait of tumultous years of Greek history, Nazi occupation, Communist uprising, Civil and Cold war. The personal suffering these political developments caused his family are vividly portrayed through the lives of Anna, Trisevgeni, Elina, Georgia and Danae. His father Yorgos is also an exceptionaly strong human being who had to suffer inprisonment and torture for his political conviction.

I found this an absolutely captivating, personal book and it is easy to see how his familiy history has shaped Varoufakis to this day.