Book Log 2022 #52: Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Lea Ypi grew up in Albania in the 1990s, during the period after the death of communist dictator Enver Hoxha and the country's transition into an unstable multiparty democracy. In this memoir, she recounts the time from a personal perspective, documenting the social changes while highlighting how it impacted her schooling, friendships, and relations with her family.

It's the interactions with her family that are the most striking. Ypi learns that a former politician she'd been taught to hate in school was actually her great-grandfather, who was prime minister for a time during the country's monarchy. She also learns that her family was (or is?) Muslim. As the political climate changes in Albania, Ypi sees her parents become leading figures in the opposition, which brings its own set of challenges.

While there is plenty of reflection on the broader picture of Albania's transition to a liberal democracy (which dovetails nicely with Ypi's career as a professor of political theory and philosophy), it's the personal recollections that really make this book stand out.