SIMON MAWER'S
Novel of War & Collateral Damage
The Glass Room |
Villa Tugenhadt, Brno, Czechoslovakia
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Glass Room was inspired by the famous modern residence, Villa Tugenhadt, created by architectural master Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Brno, Czechoslovakia. Constructed between 1928 and 1930, Tugenhadt lives on today as a museum. Simon Mawer, the author of eight novels and two books of non-fiction, became entranced with the residence and its history while in Czechoslovakia researching a novel on the famous geneticist Gregor Mendel. The result of his fascination is a stunning work of fiction, the story line of which revolves around this architectural gem.
The story opens with Viktor and Liesel Landauer honeymooning in Venice. The Landauers are in love, happy, filled with the vibrant optimism of central Europe of the 1920s when they meet a well-known German modernist architect, Rainer von Abt. (A fictional take on Mies van der Rohe.) They find his intelligence and imagination compelling and commission him to design a residence for them. The home he builds for them embodies their exuberant faith in the future and the Landauer House, a masterpiece, becomes an instant architectural landmark and an important social an
d cultural destination. The central focus of this marvelous house is a Glass Room (Glasraum). Viktor and Liesel, a rich and cultured Jewish automotive mogul and a thoughtful, modern gentile, pour all of their hopes for their budding family into their stunning new home, filling it with a generation of artists and thinkers eager to abandon old European style in favor of the avant-garde. The radiant idealism of 1930 quickly evaporates beneath the storm clouds of World War II. As Nazi troops enter Czechoslovakia, the Landauers leave their life behind, before they themselves can be captured in the Nazi maelstrom. Their Jewish friend and some members of their extended family elect to remain behind and many lose their lives in Nazi camps. The Landauers make their way to America, where Viktor starts a new business. The Landauers survive but they are burdened with sadness at the loss of their hopes, their dreams and their loved ones. In the end, they are finally home, back to where their story began. Separate story lines involve others who live in the house after the Landauers abandon it, including Nazis, and how they are impacted by the beauty of the house, The villa is, in fact, the most important character in the book. The novel is a wonderful marriage of literature and architectural art and, in fact, addresses most of the humanities in the course of the story.
Passage from The Glass Room:
“
You can tell. At least I can tell.”
“Tell what?” asked von Abt over his shoulder.
Viktor grinned at Liesel.
“That you are a poet.”
“Ah,!” The man rasied an imperious finer. “Apoet, yes: but not a poet of words. I am a poet of form.”
:A dancer then?”
“No.”
“A Sculptor?”
“A poet of space and structure. That is what I wish to show you....”
“...You are an architect!”
“I repeat, “ replied Rainer von Abt, “I am a poet of space and form. Of light” —it seemed to be of no difficulty at all to drag another quality into his aesthetic— “of light, and space, and form. Architects are people who build walls and floors and roofs. I capture and enclose
the space within....”
What Others Say About The Glass Room:
Simon Mawer’s work is rich with a desire to see through to the core of things.
—The Observer
...Mawer’s control of his themes of language, desire, memory, and the power of place is extraordinary...
—The Daily Telegraph
...a thing of extraordinary beauty and symmetry.
—The Guardian
Bibliography
The Glass Room (Little, Brown, UK, 2009; Other Press, USA, 2009)
Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics (Harry N Abrams, USA, 2006)
Swimming to Ithaca (Little Brown, UK, 2006)
The Fall (Little, Brown in USA & UK, 2003)
The Gospel of Judas (Little, Brown, UK, 2000; Little, Brown USA, 2001)
Mendel’s Dwarf (Transworld, UK, 1997; Harmony, USA, 1998)
A Jealous God (Andre Deutsch, UK, 1996)
The Bitter Cross (Sinclair-Stevenson, UK, 1992);
A Place in Italy (Sinclair-Stevenson, UK, 1992);
Chimera (Hamish Hamilton, UK, 1989)
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