Free (Ypi book)

Last updated
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History
Free (Ypi book).jpg
First edition
Author Lea Ypi
Publisher Allen Lane
Publication date
28 October 2021 (2021-10-28)
Pages336 [1]
ISBN 978-0-241-48185-1

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History is a 2021 book by Lea Ypi published by Penguin Books. [1] In the book, Ypi details her experience growing up before and after the fall of communism in Albania. [2]

Contents

Reception

Free was shortlisted for the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize and the 2021 Costa Book Award for biography. [3] [4] In January 2022, BBC Radio 4 serialised the book in their Book of the Week series. [5]

Free won the Ondaatje Prize [6] and the Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize. [7]

10,000 copies of the book were sold in November 2021. [2]

Ed O'Loughlin praised Ypi's use of subtext in the work. [8] Critics of the book have accused it of being communist apologia, an accusation that Ypi has denied. [2]

Related Research Articles

The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdom. Established in 1942, it was one of the oldest literary awards in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baillie Gifford Prize</span> Non-fiction writing award

The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its motto "All the best stories are true", the prize covers current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. The competition is open to authors of any nationality whose work is published in the UK in English. The longlist, shortlist and winner is chosen by a panel of independent judges, which changes every year. Formerly named after English author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, the award was renamed in 2015 after Baillie Gifford, an investment management firm and the primary sponsor. Since 2016, the annual dinner and awards ceremony has been sponsored by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azadeh Moaveni</span> American journalist and writer

Azadeh Moaveni is an Iranian-American writer, journalist, and academic. She is the former director of the Gender and Conflict Program at the International Crisis Group, and is Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism. She is the author of four books, including the bestselling Lipstick Jihad and Guest House for Young Widows, which was shortlisted for numerous prizes. She contributes to The New York Times, The Guardian, and The London Review of Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elif Shafak</span> Turkish novelist, essayist and womens rights activist (born 1971)

Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, public speaker, political scientist and activist.

Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre is a British author, reviewer and columnist for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.

The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someone who is a citizen of or who has been resident in the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hisham Matar</span> American born British-Libyan writer (born 1970)

Hisham Matar is an American born British-Libyan writer. His memoir of the search for his father, The Return, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 2017 PEN America Jean Stein Book Award. His debut novel In the Country of Men was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Matar's essays have appeared in the Asharq al-Awsat, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times and The New York Times. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published to wide acclaim on 3 March 2011. He lives and writes in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margo Jefferson</span> American writer and academic (born 1947)

Margo Lillian Jefferson is an American writer and academic.

The Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction is a British literary award founded in 2010. At £25,000, it is one of the largest literary awards in the UK. The award was created by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, whose ancestors were closely linked to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, who is generally considered the originator of historical fiction with the novel Waverley in 1814.

Laura Cumming is a British journalist who is the art critic of The Observer newspaper, a position she has held since 1999. Before that she worked for The Guardian, the New Statesman and the BBC. In addition to her career in journalism, Cumming has written well-received books on self-portraits in art and the discovery of a lost portrait by Diego Velázquez in 1845. The Vanishing Man was a New York Times bestseller and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2016.

Olivia Laing is a British writer, novelist and cultural critic. She is the author of four works of non-fiction, To the River, The Trip to Echo Spring,The Lonely City, and Everybody, as well as an essay collection, Funny Weather, and a novel, Crudo. In 2018, she was awarded the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction and in 2019, the 100th James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Crudo. In 2019 she became an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

<i>The Return</i> (memoir) 2016 memoir by Hisham Matar

The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between is a memoir by Hisham Matar that was first published in June 2016. The memoir centers on Matar's return to his native Libya in 2012 to search for the truth behind the 1990 disappearance of his father, a prominent political dissident of the Gaddafi regime. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the inaugural 2017 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the 2017 Folio Prize, becoming the first nonfiction book to do so.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudhir Hazareesingh</span> British historian

Sudhir Hazareesingh, GCSK, is a British-Mauritian historian. He has been a fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford since 1990. Most of his work relates to modern political history from 1850; including the history of contemporary France as well as Napoleon, the Republic and Charles de Gaulle.

<i>Once Upon a Time in the East</i> (book) Memoir by Xiaolu Guo

Once Upon a Time in the East is a memoir by Chinese-born British Xiaolu Guo. The book is titled Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China in the United States.

Cal Flyn is a Scottish author and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lea Ypi</span> Albanian professor of political theory

Lea Ypi is an Albanian academic and author. She is Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics. In 2022, she was named one of the world's top ten thinkers by the British magazine Prospect and one of the most important cultural figures by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She was named one of the six most important thinkers of 2023 by El Pais. Her work has been translated in 30 languages and won numerous prizes, including the British Academy "Brian Barry" Prize for excellence in Political Science and a Leverhulme Prize for outstanding research achievements. She was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2020 and is a member of the jury of the Deutscher Memorial Prize.

Thomas Page McBee is an American transgender journalist, television writer, and amateur boxer. He was the first transgender man to box in Madison Square Garden, which he discusses in Amateur. His first book, Man Alive, won a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.

<i>Amateur</i> (book) 2018 book by Thomas Page McBee

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man is a nonfiction book by Thomas Page McBee, published August 14, 2018, by Scribner.

The Costa Book Award for First Novel, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971–2006), was an annual literary award for authors' debut novels, part of the Costa Book Awards which were discontinued in 2022, the 2021 awards being the last made.

The Costa Book Award for Children's Book, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971–2005), was an annual literary award for children's books, part of the Costa Book Awards, which were discontinued in 2022, the 2021 awards being the last made.

References

  1. 1 2 "Free". Penguin Books . Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Weaver, Matthew (3 January 2022). "Author says memoir of communist Albania met with 'vicious' abuse". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  3. Flood, Alison (15 October 2021). "Baillie Gifford prize reveals 'outstanding storytelling' on 2021 shortlist". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  4. Flood, Alison (23 November 2021). "Costa prize 2021 shortlists highlight climate anxiety". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  5. Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi. Book of the Week. BBC Radio 4. 31 January 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  6. "RSL Ondaatje Prize 2022 Shortlist Announced". Royal Society of Literature. 2022-04-20. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  7. "Best First Biography Prize Archives". Slightly Foxed. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  8. O’Loughlin, Ed (18 December 2021). "Free by Lea Ypi: Funny, precise, accessible, serious memoir of a Stalinist childhood". The Irish Times . Retrieved 3 January 2022.