Punchy, acerbic, sharp-witted and above-all, acutely observed, Born Free tells the story of an ordinary family who are all trying to escape from something - and each other.
The interactions between Jake, Joni, Angie and Vic reveal a hellish cocktail of asdolescent and mid-life crises; the savagery of sibling rivalry; the waking nightmare of a marriage gone cold - and, naturally, the unbridgeable, infernal chasm between the generations.
It's a story of everyday life.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2000 BOOK OF THE YEAR - THE FACE '99 NOMINATED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE

"The writing is of a high quality and puts across a powerful sense of claustrophobia and quiet desperation." - * The Observer *

"It's desperately readable, blackly comic and painful, a delight born of dysfunction." - * The Times *

"Born Free confirms Laura Hird as one of Scotland's most talented writers. This bleak tale of urban dismay, set in the badlands of Edinburgh, is a work of considerable force and maturity - Hird organises her material with confidence and style - The novel's final 50 pages are a memorable descent into the dark mires of the human spirit, yet the book ends with a spark of optimism." - * Daily Telegraph *

"Born Free exhibits a maturity that suggests Hird has emerged from the coat-tails of her peers and has ceased to play the literary wee sister - she manages to carry things off with aplomb - Hird's portrayal of a woman in alcoholic free-fall is uncomfortably accurate - shifts with ease from the screamingly funny to the gut-wrenching - thought provoking and entertaining." - * The Scotsman *