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Glassworks Cover Image Book Book

Glassworks / Olivia Wolfgang-Smith.

Wolfgang-Smith, Olivia, (author.).

Summary:

"Glassworks is a fractured generational saga that follows the Novak family through four generations, examining the traumas and consequences we share with our family and the truths of our lives we don't pass forward. In 1910, volatile Czech naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak moves to Boston to make scientific glassworks for wealthy patroness Agnes, who is rapidly losing money and sanity at the hands of her abusive husband. In 1938, their son Edward-not the brightest bulb-struggles with his relationship to the family glassblowing tradition and, as he tries to prove himself capable, accidentally ends up entangled with the mob. In 1986, Edward's nonbinary child Novak is a window cleaner for Manhattan's skyscrapers, caught up in the plight of Cecily, a small-town girl remade as a gender-bending Broadway ingenue. In 2019, Cecily's daughter Flip-a gay stoner who works at a company that fires cremains into keepsake glass ornaments-finally breaks the cycle of family secrets"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781635578775 (hardcover)
  • Physical Description: 356 pages : illustration ; 25 cm
  • Publisher: New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.

Search for related items by subject

Subject: Families > Fiction.
Family secrets > Fiction.
Glassworkers > Fiction.
Genre: Domestic fiction.
Psychological fiction.
Novels.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Lakeshore Branch FIC Wolfg 31681010323822 FICTION Available -
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  • Baker & Taylor
    Follows several generations of a family between 1910 and 2015, from Agnes who leaves her spendthrift husband for a Bohemian naturalist glassblower to her great-granddaughter who is a burned-out stoner making cremains into glass keepsakes. 60,000 first printing.
  • Baker & Taylor
    "In 1910, Agnes Carter makes the wrong choice in marriage. After years as an independent woman of fortune, influential with the board of a prominent university because of her financial donations, she is now subject to the whims of an abusive, spendthrifthusband. But when Bohemian naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak reignites Agnes's passion for science, Agnes begins to imagine a different life, and she sets her mind to getting it. Agnes's desperate actions breed secrecy, and the resulting silence echoes into the future. Her son, Edward, wants to be a man of faith but struggles with the complexities of the mortal world while apprenticing at a stained-glass studio. In 1986, Edward's child, Novak-just Novak-is an acrobatic window washer cleaning Manhattan high-rises, who gets caught up in the plight of Cecily, a small town girl remade as a gender-bending Broadway ingâenue. And in 2015, Cecily's daughter Flip-a burned-out stoner trapped in a bureaucratic job firing cremains into keepsake glass ornaments-resolves to break the cycle of inherited secrets, reaching back through the generations in search of a family legacy that feels true"--
  • McMillan Palgrave

    A gorgeously written and irresistibly intimate queer novel that follows one family across four generations to explore legacy and identity in all its forms.

    Longlisted for the Center for Fiction and VCU Cabell First Novel Prizes
    Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Apple, and Good Housekeeping

  • McMillan Palgrave

    A gorgeously written and irresistibly intimate queer novel that follows one family across four generations to explore legacy and identity in all its forms.

    Longlisted for the Center for Fiction and VCU Cabell First Novel Prizes
    Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Apple, and Good Housekeeping

    “So deeply imagined and immersive that reading it felt like an invitation: Shatter what needs to be shattered and mold your story from what's left . . . I needed this novel, both for its cathartic devastation and the hope found in its wreckage.” ?The New York Times

    “Kaleidoscopic in its sweep, without sentimentality or showiness . . . Glassworks warrants our attention and our admiration. With its gripping turns and subtle prose, it is a near-perfect debut.” ?Washington Post

    In 1910, Agnes Carter makes the wrong choice in marriage. After years as an independent woman of fortune, influential with the board of a prominent university because of her financial donations, she is now subject to the whims of an abusive, spendthrift husband. But when Bohemian naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak reignites Agnes's passion for science, Agnes begins to imagine a different life, and she sets her mind to getting it.

    Agnes's desperate actions breed secrecy, and the resulting silence echoes into the future. Her son, Edward, wants to be a man of faith but struggles with the complexities of the mortal world while apprenticing at a
    stained-glass studio.

    In 1986, Edward's child, Novak-just Novak-is an acrobatic window washer cleaning Manhattan high-rises, who gets caught up in the plight of Cecily, a small town girl remade as a gender-bending Broadway ingénue.

    And in 2015, Cecily's daughter Flip-a burned-out stoner trapped in a bureaucratic job firing cremains into keepsake glass ornaments-resolves to break the cycle of inherited secrets, reaching back through the generations in search of a family legacy that feels true.

    With "gripping turns and subtle prose" (The Washington Post), Glassworks is a sophisticated debut that holds you in its thrall until the last page.

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