The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan

The Price of Salt has grown in popularity and in importance, and is now recognized as an American masterwork.  Highsmith has given us the enthralling story of Therese Belivet and Carol Aird. Therese is a young stage designer who is trapped in a department-store day job, until one day her salvation arrives in the form of Carol. Carol is a beguiling suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce. They fall madly in love and set out across the USA, pursued by a private investigator. The P. I. eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover. A generation of women took this love  story to heart and it had become a best selling lesbian novel. Since the production of the movie 'Carol' starring Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird and Rooney Mara as Therese Belivet.