At the opening of this novel, a mid-19th-century tomboy named Pell Ridley faces an important decision: marry a man she doesn't love to exchange her life of freedom for a life of household drudgery, or strike out on horseback for the unknown.

Published in 1982 and only now translated into English, Tove Jansson's novel asks the timeless question, whether it is better to be kind than to be truthful when a poor woman inveigles her way into a wealthy older woman's life.

The characters and situations in The Gin Closet feel familiar; close cousins to the women who populate Lifetime movies, sad songs, and countless other novels.

In this coming-of-age novel, a young woman named Imelda Richardson escapes from Jamaica during the hurricane of 1974, forcing her to start a new life in England.

On the first page of The Storm, Margriet de Moor reveals the novel's ending.