Gain - Softcover

Powers, Richard; Powers, Shelley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312429096 ISBN 13: 9780312429096

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2009

Synopsis

Gain braids together two stories on very different scales. In one, Laura Body, divorced mother of two and a real-estate agent in the small town of Lacewood, Illinois, plunges into a new existence when she learns that she has ovarian cancer. In the other, Clare & Company, a soap manufacturer begun by three brothers in nineteenth-century Boston, grows over the course of a century and a half into an international consumer products conglomerate based in Laura's hometown. Clare's stunning growth reflects the kaleidoscopic history of America; Laura Body's life is changed forever by Clare. The novel's stunning conclusion reveals the countless invisible connections between the largest enterprises and the smallest lives.

About this title

Review:

"Powers is a writer of blistering intellect." --Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[Gain] is erudite, penetrating and splendidly written." --Bruce Bawer, The New York Times Book Review

"Richard Powers has proven himself a visionary writer." --Greil Marcus, The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

"Gain only confirms that Powers is, in fact, a major American novelist." --Adam Kirsch, The New Republic

From the Publisher:

'one of the exceptional American novels of recent years' TLS
'brilliant' Telegraph

'Seeded with bitter ironies and subtle symbolism, this is a novel of understated strength and unsentimental grace, less raging polemic than silent scream at an America dedicated to gree' Sunday Times

'exhilarating... the tender, aching tale of Laura Bodey is a superbly fragile achievement' Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0312429096
• ISBN 13: 9780312429096
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416