A Good Name

Being a woman in 1723 is hard. Impulsive and rebellious, Leemka will do what she needs to survive – even if that means becoming Jan or Johanna. Needing to escape Amsterdam after being framed for murder, she joins the Dutch East India Company as a sailor. Her poor reputation means she is unlikely to be believed over a gentleman.

Dumped at the Cape of Good Hope after being discovered as a woman, she soon has a new husband and a new baby.

All she wants is to continue to thrive in this place where she finally feels like she could belong. But powerful men and their concern for honour and reputation conspire to ruin her hard-won happiness.

Based on a true story, “A Good Name” is a historical novel set in the 1720s in Amsterdam and Cape Town. Amid a time of great change, this novel charts how a poor woman from Lower Saxony crosses oceans to find adventure and herself.