Retail is a largely female profession, and the shopgirl is an enduring—and typically voiceless—archetype. But Jean Rhys's modernist novel, Good Morning, Midnight, probed the darkness of a shopgirl's inner life; and Green Girl by Kate Zambreno picked up where Rhys left off. We spoke with Zambreno (author, most recently, of Heroines), about retail, Rhys, misery, and more.

What happens when you send kids far away from their parents, to be raised by adults who don't love them in hallowed halls of learning? According to George Orwell, it's a childhood without much joy.