Review # 67: "The Glass Room" by Simon Mawer

I recently read "The Glass Room" by Simon Mawer

"The Glass Room" opens and closes with Liesel Landauer, returning to her beloved home, and the chapters in between tell the story of how the house came to be built, the story of the Landauers and their circle of lovers and friends.

The review goes like this:

Czech newlyweds Liesel and Viktor Landauer are all about modern. While on their honeymoon they meet eccentric architect Von Abt and commission him to design their house on their hillside plot of land. He builds a huge modern home, the masterpiece being the glass room, a huge room partitioned by an onyx wall.

As Jews have their rights stripped away and Czechoslovakia is under threat of German occupation the Landauers flee the country, first to Switzerland and eventually to the United States. Loved ones and friends are lost, and Liesel Landauer always pines for the house which she loves.

Once the Landauers leave, the story follows the life of the house and its inhabitants including the servants, left behind to care for the house, the nazi scientist that converts the house into a human genetics laboratory, and the ballerina and doctor who later run a physical therapy and rehabilitation center in the house.

The characters in this book are not particularly believable or likable, the situations are often far fetched and rely heavily on amazing timing and coincidence, nevertheless it was well written, interesting and my reading enjoyment level of this book was, let's say, a 7.5.