Gain: A Novel

When three Boston merchant brothers coax the secret of fine soapmaking from an Irish immigrant, they set in motion a chain of events of that will spin a family cottage soap works into a multinational consumer-goods giant. Set against the sweeping saga of the rise of Clare Soap and chemical company is the contemporary story of Laura Bodey, a real-estate broker. Laura, her two teenage children, and her ex-husband all live in Lacewood, Illinois, a place that owes its existence to the regional Clare factories that have nursed the town from nothing. But when a cyst on Laura's ovary turns malignat and the local industry is implicated, the significant individual and the corporate behemoth collide, forever changing the shape of American life.