The Glass Room

Name: The Glass Room
Brand: Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand
SKU: 9780349121321
Price: 27.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

By Simon Mawer

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3.93

( 12,525 ratings, 1,378 reviews)

Summary

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer is a captivating tale set around a modernist house in 1930s Czechoslovakia, built for a wealthy couple whose lives are intertwined with the house's fate. As war breaks out, the house undergoes transformations that reflect the changing world, serving as a backdrop for personal dramas, historical upheavals, and human resilience. This novel explores themes of architecture, love, and history through a vivid and evocative narrative.
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Format: Paperback / softback

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The Glass Room

$27⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this story if you are fascinated by the interplay of architecture and human emotions set against the backdrop of turmoil. Its rich narrative intertwines historical events and personal lives, providing deep insights into the resilience of both a house and the people connected to it. Immerse yourself in a tale where passion, love, and betrayal unfold within the boundaries of a striking modernist building.

The Glass Room

* Inspired by a real house, an amazing modernist symbol, Simon Mawer has written his best novel yet, a story guaranteed to dazzle and intrigue the reader

Description

Cool. Balanced. Modern. The precisions of science, the wild variance of lust, the catharsis of confession and the fear of failure - these are things that happen in the Glass Room.

High on a Czechoslovak hill, the Landauer House shines as a wonder of steel and glass and onyx, built specially for newlyweds Viktor and Liesel Landauer, a Jew married to a gentile. But the radiant honesty of 1930 that the house, with its unique Glass Room, seems to engender, quickly tarnishes as the storm clouds of WW2 gather, and eventually the family must flee, accompanied by Viktor's lover and her child.

But the house's story is far from over, and as it passes from hand to hand, from Czech to Russian, both the best and the worst of the history of Eastern Europe becomes somehow embodied and perhaps emboldened within the beautiful and austere surfaces and planes so carefully designed, until events become full-circle.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer has been widely praised for its extraordinary control of themes such as language, desire, and memory, creating a haunting narrative. Critics highlight its poetic success in depicting modernity's ironies and its passionate portrayal of individuals striving for order amidst chaos. The novel is considered profoundly affecting and compelling, being described as both enjoyable and moving by several reviewers.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349121321

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 22 April 2010

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Abacus

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 28.0mm

Width: 126.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 329g

Pages: 416

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Simon Mawer

About the Author

Simon Mawer was born in 1948 in England, and spent his childhood there, in Cyprus and in Malta. He has lived with his wife in Italy for more than 20 years, and he teaches at the English School in Rome.

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