The Glass RoomOn honeymoon in Venice in 1929, Viktor and Liesel Landauer face a new world when they meet brilliant architect Rainer von Abt. Soon, on a hillside near a provincial Czech town, the Landauer House with its celebrated Glass Room will become von Abt's greatest work, a modernist masterpiece in glass and steel, with travertine floors and onyx walls, filled with light and optimism. But while Viktor's beautiful wife is Aryan, he is Jewish, and so when Nazi troops arrive the family must flee. Yet their exile is not the end of the spectacular building. It slips from hand to hand, from Czech to Nazi to Soviet and finally to the Czechoslovak state, the crystalline perfection of the Glass Room always exerting a gravitational pull on those who know it. It becomes a laboratory, a shelter from the storm of war, and a place where the broken and the ruined find some kind of comfort until, with the collapse of Communism, the Landauers can finally return to where their story began. |
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absurd baby beautiful Blackfield Bösendorfer breath building café called chair chata cigarette coming course Czech dance darling daughter Doctor Mabuse door dreams everything eyes face feels floor Frau friends front garden German girl glances Glass Room hair Hana Hanáková Hana says Hana's hand happened happy Hauptsturmführer head Herr imagine inside Kata Katalin kiss Landauer House Laník laughs Lidové Noviny Liesel light living looks round Mandl Marika Martin Město mother move Nansen passport Němec never Obergruppenführer Ondine onyx wall Oskar Ottilie perhaps photographs piano play Prague Rainer von Abt Ravensbrück Reichsprotektor Sachertorte seems shrugs Simon Mawer sitting Slav slivovice smell smile smoke someone sound space Stahl standing strange talk tell terrace There's thought told Tomáš trying turecká turns Veselý Vienna voice wait walk watching whole wife woman women wonderful words Zdenka