An American Mom in Asia

I can honestly admit that I knew very little about the country of Albania, it’s history or it’s politics before reading this book. Shame on me. Free – Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi is a wonderful nonfiction memoir told with such narrative and conversation that I could have believed it was a novel. I think this book resonated with me so much because it didn’t feel like ancient history. I lived these same years as the author (she’s only 3 years older than me), yet our coming of age experiences were vastly different. While I fretted over schoolboy crushes and high school parties and sports team tryouts in the late 90’s, Lea Ypi fretted over political systems, socialism vs. communism, friends and family disappearing, gunshots, explosions, and sometimes schoolboy crushes. I can’t recommend this book highly enough for anyone looking to expand their European historical reading list as well as immerse yourself in a different culture for awhile.

⭐️ My rating: 4.5 stars of 5