Reading: The Glass Room

"High on a Czechoslovak hill, the Landauer House shines as a marvel of steel, glass and onyx. Built specially for newlyweds Viktor and Liesel Landauer, a Jew married to a gentile, it is one of the wonders of modernist architecture. But the radiant honesty and idealism of 1930 that the house seems to engender quickly tarnishes as the storm clouds of World War Two gather"

I'm two thirds of the way through this gorgeously written novel by Simon Mawer. Even though the time period and setting could potentially set off alarm bells ringing in your head with the fear that it will be mawkish and clichéd, let me put your mind at rest. Quite simply, this book will entice you deeper and deeper until without you noticing, you will be right there, inside the house, and into the lives of these  characters.

Photographs of the real house that inspired Mawer, an interesting article about the house and a short film made by the BBC.