Broken Glass Park
by Alina Bronsky
The book I just finished reading that I think everyone should read this week is Broken Glass Park. I just finished it yesterday and it is, by far, the best debut novel that I’ve ever read (with many apologies to Post Office, Ask the Dust, Neverwhere, and House of Leaves, my other favorite debut novels).
Bronsky (Russian born, German import at the age of thirteen) is somewhat of a literary mystery at this point, writing under a pseudonym and revealing very few details beyond that false name. Broken Glass Park was originally published in German (as Scherbenpark [2008]) and was fortunately bought to us by Europa Editions in a spectacular English translation.
The main character of the novel is Sascha Naimann, a 17 year old Russian-born immigrant to Germany, living in the ghettos of Berlin, specifically an area known as “The Emerald.”
Sascha claims that she is different from the other people in the Emerald because she has “worthwhile dreams.” These dreams are to kill her step-father and write a book about her mother’s life. As for the others in the building, Anna wants a rich husband, Valentin wants a beautiful car, and Peter wants a woman with naturally blond hair. All dreams that Sascha feels are “so pathetic that if I were in their shoes I’d rather not have any.” At 17, Sascha already has much in common with today’s youth: cynical, disillusioned, and angry.
On the first page, Sascha reveals that her mother is dead and as time goes on, more and more details about her mother’s death come to light. Her mother was killed leaving behind three children, Sascha, Anton, and Alyssa. To save them from being filed into the system, her step-father’s sister, Maria, comes from Russia to take care of them.
Check out the sample chapter at the link above. This book is so spectacular because the voice isn’t anything new… the book is spectacular because Sascha’s voice is strong, loud, and inspiring. Bronsky writes with what must certainly be a strong auto-biographical slant about Sascha’s struggles to live up to her dreams and yet most of the novel is a simple coming-of-age tale of a young, poor girl growing up in a terrible place.
The book ends well, but definitely leaves room for Sascha to return and honestly… I would love to see it. She’s part Lisbeth Salander (from the excellent Millennium Trilogy by Steig Larsson) and part Arturo Bandini (I know, I know… you don’t know who that is). She’s brilliant, angry, and trying to tear apart her soul by writing her pain (though she never seems to get around to writing that book about her mother).
I cannot stress this enough. Read this book. There are no one-dimensional characters, no bad dialogue, no unnecessarily confusing plot devices. Only smart writing, smart characters, and wonderful twists and turns all the way through. If Bronsky isn’t an international writing phenom within a year (and for her own sake, I hope she isn’t), I’ll be shocked. There’s so much potential for her future as an author and I can’t wait to see where it goes. READ THIS BOOK!
