Gain — Richard Powers

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Playground braids together two very different stories in a novel on "the Promethean messianism of corporate America" (Greil Marcus, San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle).

In one story, 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.
Gain's stunning conclusion reveals the countless invisible connections between the largest enterprises and the smallest lives.

"Erudite, penetrating and splendidly written . . . There is no gainsaying the remarkable artistry and authority with which Powers, in this dazzling book, continues to impart his singular vision of our life and times." -- Bruce Bawer, The New York Times Book Review

"Richard Powers' powerful and peculiar novel, Gain, is the largest compliment any author has paid to the American reading public in decades." -- Thomas M. Disch, The Washington Post Book World

"Subtle, provocative, and powerful . . . Richard Powers' deceptively simple and terrifyingly effective novel Gain says it better than anyone has in a long time: buyer beware." -- Rick Moody, Voice Literary Supplement

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