Free

Before we talk about the book at all: what is one small object from your own childhood (a collection, a tin, a hand-me-down) that you still feel fond of? Lea's world is full of them.

What is the first scene from this book you found yourself describing out loud to someone else, and what made you want to pass it along?

The adults in Lea's life speak in careful, coded ways. Did that remind you of any phrase your own family used to tiptoe around something, and how did it feel to recognize that here?

Young Lea genuinely loves her school, her slogans, her country. How did it feel to sit inside that sincere childhood affection, knowing more than she does?

Queuing, rationing, and making do fill these pages, and yet so much of it reads as warm rather than bleak. Which of those everyday-scarcity moments felt oddly comforting to you, and why do you think that is?

The book keeps turning the word 'free' over in your hands. Did reading it change what the word brings to mind for you, even slightly? Say it in a sentence, no need to defend it.

Ypi writes about her own family with real affection even when she is describing hard, complicated things. Where did you feel that tenderness most, and did it make you think differently about how you tell your own family's story?

By the end, the version of freedom that arrives is not quite the one anyone was hoping for. Without naming specifics, what feeling were you left holding when you closed the book, and did any part of it feel like comfort?