Glass

A widow, aging and alone, tells her side of the story in this " hilarious, poetic, and heartbreaking" meditation on memory ( Hazel Wren).

Tasked with writing the preface to a reissue of her late husband's long-out-of-print novel, Edna also finds herself taking care of a vacationing neighbor's pet rat, an aquarium of fish, and an apartment full of potted plants. Sitting at her typewriter day after day, her mind drifts in a Proustian marathon of introspection. What eventually unfolds, as if by accident, is the story of a marriage and a portrait of a mind pushed to its limits. Is Edna's preface an homage to her late husband or an act of belated revenge? Is she the cultured and sensitive victim of a crass and brutally ambitious husband? Or was Clarence the long-suffering caretaker of a neurotic and delusional wife?

The unforgettable characters in Sam Savage's two bestselling novels Firmin and The Cry of the Sloth garnered worldwide critical acclaim. In Glass , "a dazzling, graceful novel," Savage once again creates a character simultaneously appealing and exasperating, comical and tragic ( Star Tribune ). "The book, while a skilled piece of storytelling, reads like a philosophical exploration . . . A fantastic experiment in perspective" ( January Magazine, Best of 2011).

"An engaging study of both the quirks and the depths of personality." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Savage's decision to use the point of view of an unreliable narrator will capture the attention of readers of literary fiction. The wry, bizarre humor will keep it." -- Booklist

"Edna is hilarious, poetic, and heartbreaking, all without really trying to be. . . . The glimpses of her past life are so perfectly sculpted and are teeming with gorgeous language, and her humor that cuts them short is so precise and well-played." -- Hazel Wren

"Sam Savage's exhilarating, often lilting use of language and his faultless characterization of the eccentric, unraveling of his main character, Edna, is evocative, poetic, and compelling." -- New York Journal of Books

"An original and compelling book. Highly recommended" -- Library Journal (starred review)

"Readers are ultimately rewarded with a nearly voyeuristic pleasure, watching as this human life unfolds, reluctantly, in all its tragic splendor." -- BookPage