Thanks in advance if anyone can help.
My memory of this is not the best, so its possible I have details wrong and am getting muddled! I read it in the late 90s or early 2000s, so it's not a very recent book, although I don't know when it was published. I think the book was split into about 3 sections.
There is a poor, young girl who I think is pregnant at the start of the book and is taken in by an old woman. They eventually become very fond of each other and through the old woman I think she learns how to make ointments/creams? There's a lot of tragedy in the first part of the book, the old woman dies, and the girl marries but loses her husband and at some point she gives away her son.
She eventually makes money selling the creams? lotions? I think she sets up a factory I think she possibly makes and loses money a few times and there is perhaps the death of another spouse. I think there is maybe a story line involving lending money from banks. She has a daughter who falls in love with the brother her mother gave away all those years ago.
I feel like I remember more about the start of the book but can't remember how it turns out. It pops into my head every 6 months or so and drives me crazy trying to remember it.