The Price of Salt, or Carol

In 1950s New York, a quiet shop clerk meets an elegant woman who turns her tidy life upside down. Therese Belivet and Carol Aird forge a delicate, urgent connection in stolen conversations and small, charged gestures, and the novel moves with spare, precise prose that balances suspense and tenderness. As their love deepens they must navigate social scrutiny, practical decisions, and the quiet fear of being seen, so every choice feels heavy with longing and protection. Warm, humane, and quietly hopeful, the story celebrates the courage it takes to choose yourself and the fragile, electric joy of finding someone who reflects you back.

~ Included for its trailblazing, compassionate depiction of lesbian love in midcentury America and for offering a rare hopeful, dignified ending that helped change how desire could be imagined in fiction ~