An Image in a Mirror, the debut novel by Ijangolet S Ogwang, is out from BlackBird Books in May 2018.

‘Strange, how humans desire to see themselves in a mirror image: staring back from the glass, their parts reversed, but their colours reflected.’

BlackBird Books is an imprint, incubated by Jacana Media, that provides a platform and a publishing home to both new voices and the existing generation of black writers and narratives.

About the book

Achen and Nyakale: twin sisters, separated in childhood to inherit different destinies.

In the hope of inheriting a better life, a mother makes the heartwrenching decision to send one child, Nyakale, to South Africa to be raised by her well-off sister, the child’s aunt, who has no children of her own. The other child, Achen, stays in Uganda to be raised by their mother in a village.

An Image in a Mirror is a richly told and deeply intimate African story about the becoming of two young women, who are, the same as much as they are different.

When the sisters, at the age of 22, finally cross their respective worlds to meet, how mirrored will each feel about the other?

Heralding a new female voice in fiction, An Image in a Mirror is a profound debut novel.

About the author

Ijangolet S Ogwang was born in Kenya to Ugandan parents and raised South African, more specifically in a small town in the Eastern Cape called Butterworth. She is most passionate about women empowerment and the development of Africa. She co-founded Good-Hair and works as an analyst for Edge Growth, a company focused on growing small businesses in South Africa. Between this and ‘adulting’ she makes up stories.

Categories Africa Fiction South Africa

Tags An Image in a Mirror BlackBird Books Ijangolet S Ogwang Jacana Media New books New releases