NOW A HUGELY ACCLAIMED, SIX-TIMES OSCAR-NOMINATED FILM STARRING CATE BLANCHETT AND ROONEY MARA
‘Full of tremor and of threat and of her peculiar genius for anxiety’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘A document of persecuted love . . . perfect’ INDEPENDENT
‘Some books change lives. This is one of them’ VAL MCDERMID
A groundbreaking American novel for its honest and sensitive portrayal of a lesbian couple in the 1950s, Carol is a truly remarkable story.
Therese is just an ordinary sales assistant working in a New York department store when an alluring woman in her thirties walks up to her counter. Standing there, Therese is wholly unprepared for the first shock of love. She is an awkward nineteen-year-old with a job she hates and a boyfriend she doesn’t love. Carol is a sophisticated, bored suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce and a custody battle for her only daughter. As Therese becomes irresistibly drawn into Carol’s world, she soon realises how much they both stand to lose.
First published pseudonymously in 1952 as The Price of Salt, Carol is a hauntingly atmospheric love story set against the backdrop of fifties New York.
‘Full of tremor and of threat and of her peculiar genius for anxiety’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘A document of persecuted love . . . perfect’ INDEPENDENT
‘Some books change lives. This is one of them’ VAL MCDERMID
A groundbreaking American novel for its honest and sensitive portrayal of a lesbian couple in the 1950s, Carol is a truly remarkable story.
Therese is just an ordinary sales assistant working in a New York department store when an alluring woman in her thirties walks up to her counter. Standing there, Therese is wholly unprepared for the first shock of love. She is an awkward nineteen-year-old with a job she hates and a boyfriend she doesn’t love. Carol is a sophisticated, bored suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce and a custody battle for her only daughter. As Therese becomes irresistibly drawn into Carol’s world, she soon realises how much they both stand to lose.
First published pseudonymously in 1952 as The Price of Salt, Carol is a hauntingly atmospheric love story set against the backdrop of fifties New York.
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Reviews
An original, honest novel, a remarkable imaginative achievement by any standard . . . As compelling as any of Highsmith's thrillers
Magnificent . . . Gently exploratory, genuinely moving
This book is a must read. It is an honest outline of the changes in society and the way we address topics such as sexuality. You must read Carol if you love books about real life and real issues. It will change the way you look at this topic and your life in general
A document of persecuted love . . . perfect
Very recognisably Highsmith, full of tremor and of threat and of her peculiar genius for anxiety
Fundamentally, Carol is a moving love story. One that's beautifully told, achingly honest, but never gratuitously or tritely sentimental
Some books change lives. This is one of them . . . It has the drive of a thriller but the imagery of a romance . . . This is a book that is hard to set aside; it demands to be read late into the night with eyes burning and heart racing
