Gain A Novel [Paperback]

Gainbraids 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.

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

Gainonly confirms that Powers is, in fact, a major American novelist. Adam Kirsch, The New Republic

RICHARD POWERSis the author of ten novels, including his most recent title,Generosity.The Echo Makerwon the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Powers has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Lannan Literary Award. He lives in Illinois.