Free: Coming of Age at the End of History is a 2021 book by Lea Ypi published by Penguin Books. In the book, Ypi details her experience growing up before and after the fall of communism in Albania.
Reception
Free was shortlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize and the 2021 Costa Book Award for biography. In January 2022, BBC Radio 4 serialised the book in their Book of the Week series.
Free won the Ondaatje Prize and the Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize.
10,000 copies of the book were sold in November 2021.
Ed O'Loughlin praised Ypi's use of subtext in the work. Critics of the book have accused it of being communist apologia, an accusation that Ypi has denied.