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The Glass House

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
1 of 2 copies available

Beatrice Colin's The Glass House is a gorgeously transporting novel filled with turn-of-the-century detail and lush blooms, about two women from vastly different worlds
Scotland, 1912. Antonia McCulloch's life hasn't gone the way she planned. She and her husband, Malcolm, have drifted apart; her burgeoning art career came to nothing; and when she looks in the mirror, she sees disappointment. But at least she will always have Balmarra, her family's grand Scottish estate, and its exquisite glass house, filled with exotic plants that can take her far away.
When her estranged brother's wife, Cicely Pick, arrives unannounced, with her young daughter and enough trunks to last the summer, Antonia is instantly suspicious. What besides an inheritance dispute could have brought her glamorous sister-in-law all the way from India? Still, Cicely introduces excitement and intrigue into Antonia's life, and, as they get to know one another, Antonia realizes that Cicely has her own burdens to bear. Slowly, a fragile friendship grows between them. But when the secrets each are keeping become too explosive to conceal, the truth threatens their uneasy balance and the course of their entire lives.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books
"Colin's lyrical depictions of early-20th-century India and Scotland provide an immersive view of the characters' experiences..." —Publishers Weekly
"Colin's meandering tale has room for surprises, suspense, and soul-searching in its journey toward a cinematic conclusion." —Kirkus

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 13, 2020
      Late Scottish writer Colin (To Capture What We Cannot Keep) highlights bonds between women in this alluring tale. In the summer of 1912, Cicely Pick and her eight-year-old daughter, Kitty, travel from their home in Darjeeling, India, to Balmarra House, near the village of Cove in Scotland, to visit Antonia, the sister of Cicely’s botanist husband George. Cicely has been tasked by George with confirming George’s inheritance of Balmarra. Though Antonia had no prior notice of her sister-in-law’s arrival and her husband voices his uncertainty that Cicely is George’s wife, Antonia warms to Cicely until she discovers Cicely’s purpose in coming to Balmarra is to claim the estate for her own family and sell it out from under Antonia. When Cicely becomes ill, Antonia cares for Kitty and helps enroll her in school. Meanwhile, Cicely considers staying in Scotland, as her marriage to George has been soured by his infidelity and his fruitless botanical expeditions. Colin’s lyrical depictions of early-20th-century India and Scotland provide an immersive view of the characters’ experiences, particularly in Cicely’s view of damp, dank Glasgow after arriving from India (“The city smelled of coffee grounds underlined by the faint whiff of drains”), and family secrets add to the intrigue over the inheritance of Balmarra. Colin’s final work is a fine achievement.

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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