Queen of the Free State

By (author): Jennifer Friedman. A creative-nonfiction memoir of Jennifer Friedman's childhood in South Africa's Free State during the 1950s and 60s, told through interconnected stories rather than a straight chronology. The title comes from a tale in which the young Friedman visits a cemetery in Philippolis and imagines herself as a queen ruling over the children buried there. The stories capture innocence, imagination and family life set against the constraints and inequalities of a segregated society.