This is the story of Agnes La Grange, a beautiful young woman who emigrates as a housekeeper to South Africa in 1920. With a determination to make a future of her own and a love of men that does not leave her in desperate need of them, Agnes constructs a life beyond the conventions of colonial society. Written in her own fresh and unguarded voice, The Mirror is a fictional memoire, telling the story of the essential female, what she must do to survive, and how little the cost has changed over time.

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Praise for THE MIRROR

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“Masterful… Agnes tells her story with the bare-souled candor of a Billie Holiday ballad.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle

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“Like so many of the best books, The Mirror makes us laugh while packing, finally, a punch.”
—New York Times Book Review

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“(Freed) wonderfully carries off that hardest of all literary effects — it feels effortless and therefore absolutely real, as if Freed just sat down by the fire one night and told the tale of a woman she’d once known. Freed’s language brings Agnes’s world… vividly to life.”
—Elle Magazine

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“Agnes is Moll Flanders without excuses — an enchanting and infuriating heroine, both admirable and wrongheaded in her commitment to honesty and her pursuit of adventure.”
—Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)

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“I’d say it’s feminist fiction in the mode of Flaubert and Daniel Defoe. Agnes La Grange is the Moll Flanders of Durban, South Africa. You’ll want to live her fascinating life along with her.”
—All Things Considered (NPR)

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Publisher: Ballantine Books (January 9, 1999)
ISBN: 0345426894
Paperback: 256 pages

Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (September 2, 1997)
ISBN: 0517703203
Hardcover: 219 pages