The first German translation was published in 1990 under the title 'Carol' by Diogenes Verlag. It's a completely normal story, except that in 1952, when the cult novel about a lesbian love first appeared under a pseudonym in McCarthy's America, anything that was even slightly different was considered suspicious. 'Salt and Its Price' is Patricia Highsmith's only novel that deals with fulfilled love, which is experienced as happiness rather than as a wicked delusion. The author, who began the novel under the impression of a personal encounter, never writes again with such sensuality, poetry, and eroticism.