Free by Lea Ypi review – a riveting portrait of growing up in communist Albania

A tale of family secrets and political awakening amid a crumbling regime, the LSE professor's memoir is one of the nonfiction titles of the year

In 1990 Lea Ypi was asked to write a school essay. The theme was a former prime minister who had brought disgrace to her socialist homeland, Albania. This man - a traitor, according to Ypi's teacher Nora - had handed over the nation in 1939 to the Italian fascists. A few months later an aerial bomb fell on his head.

Eleven years old, and the daughter of intellectuals, Ypi was reluctant to do the school assignment. The reason? She shared a surname with this hated quisling. And unlike her classmates, whose grandfathers had fought during the war as partisans, Ypi's family lacked anti-fascist credentials. The only candidate was a remote uncle. This was a source of confusion and shame.