Glassworks

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"--