Read Women discussion

Here's our discussion thread for Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Albanian author and professor, Lea Ypi. It's a bit of a stuffy/pretentious title for a story that is mesmerizing and well-told. It's about her childhood and teen years in Albania, then under a Socialist regime, but also about what it's like to live in a country under transition from socialism to capitalism, what it means to be free (is it freedom from being forced to think X or Y, or do X or Y, or plenty of opportunities to choose different outcomes or something else), how we understand our parents, grandparents and neighbors as we mature, and at any time when things might get heavy, she has an amazing sense of humor and irony that keeps the reader not only engaged but energized to find out what happens when they turn the page.

If you're an audiobook fan, I strongly recommend this narrator. She's magical, for real.

Fangirl enthusing ahead: I started it on Dec 30 when I ended one audiobook and wanted to start another during the 2-3 hours I knew I'd spend running errands. I began to sit in parking lots and listen rather than turn off the engine and go inside to do whatever I needed to do, it was that good. I'm now at the 86% mark and dying to see what everyone else's impressions are and ask questions.

* This might be the best book I'll read in 2026.
**Before this book I could find Albania on a map, and vaguely recalled that in the 80s/90s they were more aligned with China than Russia, but that's all and it's not much. If you're inspired to read around the world to learn about other countries, this is a must-read.

Here's a YouTube interview by Inside Albania of Ypi that I found super interesting. It's only 28 minutes and focuses on how she described communism in Albania. There were criticisms and she received harassment online from within Albania when the book came out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy_nG...

I'll be reading this one, just not sure in which order. Ya know me, the queen of overcommits!

GailW wrote: "I'll be reading this one, just not sure in which order. Ya know me, the queen of overcommits!"

Yay! Whenever you get to it, I look forward to hearing your thoughts. In the last hour or so of it, she makes us think about what we deem "free" vs constrained. It reminds me of some of the key takeaways from a book I read on East Germany in 2024. Our simplistic way of thinking about communist/socialist societies, as if there are zero upsides, doesn't serve us well.

I've had this for a few years - this is a great excuse to finally read it, so thank you :) Also for the enthusiasm!
(And who doesn't always need an author with Y for their annual A-Z challenge (jut me? Ok, anyway...) Will get the foil off this and give it a go!

Re: World reading - I have read Albania before, but all Ismail Kadaré (which is great), no women - yet.

Carol - you've convinced me! It's a while since I've listened to an audiobook and I've just gotten myself a free trial on audiobooks.com and selected this as my free book. I liked the sample, funny and light despite the subject matter. I also don't know much about Albania and want to read more widely this year so I'm challenging myself :)

I had to stop reading at about page 47 and do some historical research. Even though I read my first Kadaré late in 2025, I didn't feel the strong need to research much. With this book I was lost through the first set of pages and felt that if I didn't do research I was going to be totally lost. What a history! I also watched the video Carol provided to get even more context.

I have finished the book and now have some unsettling thoughts that I may or may not express here. (With politics, religion, and education such hot topics in the US right now, I'm not sure I could stay out of the weeds and out of trouble...)

(view spoiler)[
Two areas that did strike me were religion and education. The first was the socialist government requirement that all children be educated and in such diverse areas. Unique concept (please note the intended sarcasm) that the government wanted people to be educated so that they could contribute to the whole . The author expounds on the difference between the socialist view of education vs. the capitalist view. The second area was religion - that the socialist government essentially outlawed organized religion under the thought that organized religion caused too many problems "for the whole". Hmmm.

Some frustration with the book was that there were so many secrets about her family that seemed to confuse where the storyline was going. I had to remind myself that she was only 11 when she starts the story and those secrets were held for a reason. It wasn't until later in the book that I wanted to know more!
(hide spoiler)]

The author has a second book out that covers the early years in her grandparents lives, Indignity: A Life Reimagined, that I hope to be able to fit into my reading sometime this year.

Great to see the 5 star rating Gail! I won't read your spoilers yet as I'm still early on but I am enjoying it.

It's nice listening to an audiobook again and it's fantastically read, thank you Carol!

I’ve decided to join in as I also know little about Albania. I agree that the tone feels light for such serious topics. As example, what her family does after her premature birth.
I will have to pause as well to get a bit more information so that I can get some context for the beginning part of the book. Definitely enjoying it so far.

I too thoroughly enjoyed Free and the comments above. It is much more than about Albania although the point about how ridiculous nationalism and borders are— is made early in the book through a child’s eyes. Lea’s grandmother who we learn more about in Indignity (a very different book from FREE but also worth reading) was a combination of many nationalities. Her grandfather who was had been a friend of Hoxhna and had political discussions with him was put in prison for 15 years for his views when the dictator came to power.
Free is really unique as a book about the perception of politics through a child’s eyes and that’s what I loved about it. I remember listened to my parents who were from the former Yugoslavia ( of different nationalities
I was so

Sorry my phone cut off my writing. I wanted to say how much I learned from my parents’ debates about what was going on in Yugoslavia. I could relate so much to this book because of how that impacted my thinking as a child.
I also love that Lea Ypes focuses on the questions and doesn’t feel she has to come to conclusions. Politics is about power but real people are affected. Their lives can be forever altered. Politics does matter.
It’s a very timely book. We are going through big upheavals throughout the world. I’ve already given this book to a few people I love and want to recommend it even more.

I've just finished part 1 and I'm thoroughly enjoying the book. The narrator does a fantastic job (even if it is a little strange hearing the perspective of an Albanian child via a posh British accent! 😂)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Sonja, it's really interesting to hear from someone who can relate to aspects of Ype's childhood. I agree that the strength of the book comes from discussing/questioning the politics through the lens of childhood innocence. I think it could have been a bit heavy without that. And that it doesn't feel like the author is trying to influence the reader or have an agenda other than sharing the truth of her own experience.

This brings to mind another recent group read Daughters of Smoke and Fire where the author went too far in that direction (in my opinion)

Sophie wrote: "I’ve decided to join in as I also know little about Albania. I agree that the tone feels light for such serious topics. As example, what her family does after her premature birth.
I will have to p..."

All readers are different, but I loved her tone especially when the topics became more serious - torture and imprisonment, death, loss, the outcome for her BFF Ilona. If she had lingered more or described their emotions and experiences of these events, it would have been too much for me. It's why I'm unable to read a great deal of valuable literature from countries where the story revolves around war.

Sonja wrote: "Sorry my phone cut off my writing. I wanted to say how much I learned from my parents’ debates about what was going on in Yugoslavia. I could relate so much to this book because of how that impacte..."

Oh, to hear your parents discuss the former Yugoslav countries. I wasn't prepared for how it felt once Albania was rendered "free" and her dad and the Romani had to compete for jobs and deal with being made jobless, when under the prior regime, everyone had a job. You spend your adult life conforming to the system in which you live and trying to figure out how to maximize its benefits for your family, and avoid its downsides, and then - voila! the system changes and you're ill-prepared to navigate it. Even if net outcomes for a population are better under the new approach, that doesn't mean they are better for you and your family. I felt for her dad from page 1 through the end, and how he adapted or failed to adapt and whether that failure spoke to his character. Then I remember her statement that his favorite revolutionaries were dead ones, and a wry smile comes to me.

Hannah wrote: "I've just finished part 1 and I'm thoroughly enjoying the book. The narrator does a fantastic job (even if it is a little strange hearing the perspective of an Albanian child via a posh British acc..."

I was avoiding saying this, but this book vs. Daughters of Smoke and Ash occupy the polar positions for me of political memoirs. (The authors come from very different resources and backgrounds, so no shade for the author of Daughters, who lacks the education and background to produce this polished a story.) The tone and pacing here, and Ypi's interest in challenging and shining a light on each political system as well as their respective proponents, and doing it with knowing humor and insight, challenges the reader to go deeper but also, if a reader just wants to focus on the human experience of Ypi and her family as she tells it, that's largely possible, too. Daughters only offers one pathway - see the misery.

Hannah wrote: "I've just finished part 1 and I'm thoroughly enjoying the book. The narrator does a fantastic job (even if it is a little strange hearing the perspective of an Albanian child via a posh British acc..."

p.s. the posh British narrator did crack me up, too, from time to time, as the choice to deliver this tale

Was anyone bothered by or surprised by her mom becoming somewhat Ayn Rand-ian? When she started holding forth on affirmative action in the days after the shift but before the civil war (I think), I was appalled but chalked it up to, it's easy for someone with family property and without operating within a regime of systemic racism to decide that bootstraps are one size fits all. Like one's dotty aunt living in another country. Aside from her expression of these views, I thought it was something that her mom immediately delved into representative politics. No moss on her back. Quite a feminist role model for our author to observe.

Orphanages. I remembered this morning that one of the topics that struck me while reading Free was the approach to orphanages. If I recall accurately, Ilona's dad put her baby sister in an orphanage immediately after her birth and her mom's death. But it was like an orphanage down the street that people then visited? Then isn't there a time later on where Lea is visiting the orphanage as a volunteer and takes instruction on making certain the children know you're not their mom and won't be leaving with you and then a little boy becomes attached to her and she is banned from volunteering? Each of these were so difficult to experience. And I think about how in the US our discomfort with hearing about awful things happening in group homes/orphanages prompted us to set up and almost entirely rely on the foster care system where bad things happen but in non-institutional settings and we learn about them far less often which doesn't reduce any harms but prevents them from being attributed to a state entity as if that's a win for the kids. But I digress.

How did you feel about the ways in which orphanages operated in Albania? Did the openness seem odd? good?

Carol wrote: "Was anyone bothered by or surprised by her mom becoming somewhat Ayn Rand-ian? When she started holding forth on affirmative action in the days after the shift but before the civil war (I think), I..."

I've just finished this chapter and yes! The radically different point of views/beliefs of the mother, father and grandmother are mind boggling to me. What a household to have grown up in. No moss on her back indeed! I was also alarmed when she immediately started telling Lea her opposition to the party on the day (or day after) of the revolution. How did she know it was safe yet? How could she have that much assurance after decades of everyone being watched and reported on by every child and neighbour?

Carol wrote: "Orphanages. I remembered this morning that one of the topics that struck me while reading Free was the approach to orphanages. If I recall accurately, Ilona's dad put her baby sister in an orphanag..."

I've just finished the chapter where Lea is volunteering in the orphanage and it was heartbreaking. Your recollections are spot on other than that she wasn't banned from volunteering , she was asked to move to work with the younger babies to stop the little boy being confused. This was just so sad.
I don't really understand the age cut off of 6 years. Why did/do they try to return them to their parents then? Should they be trying to build bridges and get them home or not, who can know? I suppose it depends upon the reason they are there in the first place. I found the openness both odd and good. It seemed strange that Ilona was able to visit her sister but I think it's good that they had that opportunity to stay in touch. Awful how things turned out for Ilona herself though.
I think you're right about the foster care system. It makes it seem neat and tidy, out of the public eye but that makes it easier for abuse to take place. It's so complicated though isn't it. If a child gets a nicer placement then at least they're in a more familiar and comfortable home environment.