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Carol

Virago Modern Classics (Book 181)

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What to expect

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.

Critics Review

Very recognisably Highsmith, full of tremor and of threat and of her peculiar genius for anxiety
Sunday Times
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
Guardian
A document of persecuted love . . . perfect
Independent
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
Val McDermid
An original, honest novel, a remarkable imaginative achievement by any standard . . . As compelling as any of Highsmith's thrillers
Financial Times
Fundamentally, Carol is a moving love story. One that's beautifully told, achingly honest, but never gratuitously or tritely sentimental
Reader's Digest
Magnificent . . . Gently exploratory, genuinely moving
Mail on Sunday
Author Patricia Highsmith
Narrator Laurel Lefkow
Series Virago Modern Classics
Duration 9 hours and 26 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405532723
Format Audiobook
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Genre Modern and contemporary fiction, Romance, Romantic suspense
Collections LGBTQ+
Availability AU, GB, IE

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