The book we are introducing today won the Ondaatje Prize and the Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize. In January 2022 BBC Radio 4 serialised it in its Book of the Week series. The title of the novel is ‚Free: Coming of Age at the End of History‘ by Lea Ypi, published in 2021.
In the book, Ypi details her experience growing up before and after the 1990 fall of communism in Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe.

How do the publishers describe the book?
Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Albania……. 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 everything changed……… 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.

This month’s Reading Circle members‘ book recommendations
• Jonathan Coe: The Proof of my Innocence (2024) – A happily playful and nicely satisfying slice of cosy crime’ ‘The Guardian’
• Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987) – a poignant story about the trauma of slavery and its lasting scars set in post-Civil War America.
• André Brink: A Dry White Season (1979) – an unflinching and unforgettable look at racial intolerance, the human condition, and the heavy price of morality. (Wikipedia)
• Louise Penny: The Black Wolf (2025) – Part of her Inspector Gamache crime series, set in Montreal. Light reading.
• Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein: Plato and Playpus walking into a bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes (2007) – explains several philosophical concepts with the help of jokes that serve to illustrate the points in the book.
• Robert MacFarlane: The Wild Places (2007) – relates the author’s journey to explore and document the remaining wildernesses of the British Isles.
• Harold Jäner: Vertigo – The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany (2022, English version 2024)
• Nicholas T. Parsons: The Shortest History of Austria (2025) – Incisive but comprehensive, entertaining and well-illustrated,….. the perfect introduction to Austria (Tim Blanning).
• Michael Rosen: Getting Better (2023) – Life Lessons on Going Under, Getting Over It, and Getting Through it, written after his serious Covid collapse.
• Ann Patchett: This is the Story of a Happy Marriage (2013) – Ann Patchett reflects on her life journey. (Google).
• Colum McCann: Twist (2025) – Over the course of his journey on a cable laying ship, Irish journalist Anthony Fennell makes connections with the ship’s crew and reckons with his own personal trauma (Wikipedia).

Music Played
• Albanian Folk Music
• Erlkönig by Schubert, sung by Ian Bostridge accompanied by Roger Vignolles on piano, in a recording from 2002 from the Théatre Du Châtelet in Paris.
• Funeral March, the second movement from Beethoven’s 3rd Eroica Symphony, in a recording from 1987 with the Dresdner Philharmonie, conducted by Herbert Kegel.

Do join us next month when we will be introducing ‚Departure(s)‘ by Julian Barnes, published this year, 2026. This is how the  publishers describe the book:
‘Departure(s)’ is a work of fiction – but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. It is the story of a man called Stephen and a woman called Jean, who fall in love when they are young and again when they are old….. It is also the story of how the body fails us, whether through age, illness, accident or intent…….. Ultimately, it’s about the only things that ever really mattered: how we find happiness in this life, and when it is time to say goodbye.

Reviews
• ‚We heartily enjoyed the book and yet it saddened us too as you’d expect..…… it does what a good book should and encourages you to return to the other books for a re-read.‘ www.Bookmunch.wordpress.com
• ‚…… a novel, but also an intimate, autobiographical book dedicated to taking stock of the author’s life in writing.‘ Harvard Review