The Price of Salt (Carol)

"The Price of Salt (Carol)" is a pioneering novel by Patricia Highsmith, originally published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. Set against the backdrop of 1950s New York, it tells the story of Therese Belivet, a department store clerk, and Carol Aird, an alluring older woman caught in a difficult divorce. Their immediate connection sparks a forbidden romance in a society that offered few sympathetic portrayals of queer love. This book stands out in literary history for daring to offer its central sapphic couple a hopeful, non-tragic future, a significant departure from the conventions of the time.