The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

Villa Tugenhat by Mies van der Rohe
Inspiration for The Glass Room

Having just finished reading Simon Mawer's novel, The Glass Room, I must enthusiastically recommend it to those who have not yet experienced this moving and captivating story which is set in Czechoslovakia in the years leading up to and through World War II. (I read the English versio, but those of you who read German might prefer Der Glasraum.)

The novel focuses on a real house, and although there may be references to real people (their names have been changed), the main characters are fictional and fascinating.

The creation of Czechoslovakia after World War I gives rise to to the hope that wars are a thing of the past and a new, rational, scientific, modern era is about to unfold. The fortresses and castles of the past will be replaced by architecture that is open, modern and democratic, and the people of Europe can foresee a society that looks beyond the cultural, religious, and ethnic divisions of the past. These hopes and aspirations were soon destroyed by Hitler and his invasion of Eastern Europe, only to be followed by the Communist Russian occupation.


The newlyweds, Viktor and Liesel Landauer, hire a famous modern architect, Ranier Von Abt to build a  modern, rational home on hillside overlooking Mesto, Czechoslovakia. The most striking feature of their new home is a large glass room which features an interior wall of solid onyx. The room serves as part living room, part study for the family, as well as the scene of cultural and political gatherings.


The glass room, in spite of its apparent openness, witnesses infidelity, mistrust,  and a variety of sexual encounters, but the strength of the novel is not architecture, but its unique array of characters.


Since Viktor is Jewish, his family, along with his mistress and her daughter, flee the country to avoid the Nazis and the ensuing ethnic cleansing. Liesel's closest friend and lover, Hana, chooses to stay behind with her Jewish husband. The chaos that follows gives the reader a sense of the tragedy that occurred for so many people in Europe during those years.


While some may find a series of contrived coincidences distracting, I saw them, just like the house itself, as necessary props to tell the very human story of those years.


And for those of you who own Kindles, the novel is available from Amazon for $1.99.