“In her keen-eyed and hilariously funny new book . . . novelist and memoirist Lynn Freed tells how writers deal with life’s large and little tribulations” (O, The Oprah Magazine).
 
These eleven essays combine a memoir of an exotic life, reflections on the art and craft of writing, and a brilliant examination of the ever-complex relationship between fiction and life. “Taming the Gorgon,” an account of translating a difficult parent into fiction becomes a poignant and funny meditation on the intricate knot binding mothers and daughters. The story of a scandal created by publication, “Sex with the Servants” is an inquiry into the porous boundary between private truth and public betrayal.
 
“Distinguished by its emotional honesty and stylish prose,” this blend of lively autobiography and inspiring wisdom puts aside all the fictional disguises and exposes the human being behind the artist (Chicago Tribune).
 
“Lynn Freed is a beautiful writer, dead-on brilliant, rich in humor, possessing a dark and comforting wisdom.” —Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird
 
“To the tiny list of necessary books for people who aspire to the writing life . . . must now be added Reading, Writing, and Leaving Home.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World