The Education of Harriet Hatfield by May Sarton

'Harriet Hatfield begins a new life at the age of 60 after her lover of 30 years has died and left her comfortably well off. But when Harriet opens a bookstore for women in a blue-collar neighborhood of Boston, she is viciously attacked for her lesbianism. Ms. Sarton's powerful potrayal of the shy, reserved woman's battle becomes a moving statement about the place of the outsider in our world-and the necessity of following the human heart.'