Free

Author Lea Ypi
Narrator Rachel Bavidge, Lea Ypi
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Run Time 9 hours and 9 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Autobiography: writers, Biography and non-fiction prose, European history, Far-left political ideologies and movements, History, Memoirs, Political control and freedoms, Politics and government, Society and Social Sciences.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Shortlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford prize and the 2021 Costa Biography Award.

Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.

Then, in December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict. As one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.

Free is an engrossing memoir of coming of age amid political upheaval. With acute insight and wit, Lea Ypi traces the limits of progress and the burden of the past, illuminating the spaces between ideals and reality, and the hopes and fears of people pulled up by the sweep of history.

'Funny, moving but also deadly serious, this book will be read for years to come. . . Beautifully brings together the personal and the political to create an unforgettable account of oppression, freedom and what it means to acquire knowledge about the world' David Runciman

© Lea Ypi 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

If you read one memoir this year, let it be this

Sunday Times, Books of the Year

A magical, timeless and important account of what life was really like under communism. Free brims with diamond-studded details, it lays bare the compromises, fear and betrayals of a secret police state, but is also an uplifting and humorous reminder of how much the human spirit can endure

Financial Times

A tart and tender childhood memoir. But also a work of social criticism, and a meditation on how to live with purpose. . . A quick read, but like Marx’s spectre haunting Europe, it stays with you

The New Yorker, Best Books of 2021

A strange world and its legacy is now stunningly brought to life. Lea Ypi offers a moving and compelling memoir of growing up in turbulent times, as well as a frank questioning of what it really means to be “free”

Financial Times, Books of the Year

Lea Ypi’s Free: Coming of Age at the End of History is a beautifully written account of life under a crumbling Stalinist system in Albania and the shock and chaos of what came next. In telling her story and examining the political systems in which she was raised, the author and LSE professor asks tough questions about the nature of freedom

Guardian, Books of the Year

An astonishing and deeply resonant memoir about growing up in the last days of the last Stalinist outpost of the 20th century. . . What makes it so unforgettable is that we see this world, one about which we know so little, through the eyes of a child.. . It is more fundamentally about humanity, and about the confusions and wonders of childhood. Ypi weaves magic in this book: I was entranced from beginning to end

Sunday Times

Utterly engrossing . . . Ypi’s memoir is brilliantly observed, politically nuanced and – best of all – funny. An essential book, just as much for Britons as Albanians

Guardian

Five stars. . . deserves to be added to the history curriculum

Daily Telegraph

A really fascinating and wonderful book, and beautifully written too. Not many writers could have pulled this off with such grace and elegance. You won’t regret buying this one, for sure

Five Books, Best Philosophy Books of 2021

Ypi excels at describing the fall and aftermath of Albanian communism from the perspective of her childhood . . . rich and remarkable

Literary Review

User Reviews

Book 5.0

Narration 5.0

5.0

silvie 05/10/2024

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