Glassworks
May 16, 2023
A gorgeously written and irresistibly intimate queer novel that follows one family across four generations to explore legacy and identity in all its forms, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
In 1910, Agnes Carter makes the wrong choice in marriage. After years as an independent woman of fortune, influential with the board of a prominent university because of her financial donations, she is now subject to the whims of an abusive, spendthrift husband. But when Bohemian naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak reignites Agnes's passion for science, Agnes begins to imagine a different life, and she sets her mind to getting it.
Agnes's desperate actions breed secrecy, and the resulting silence echoes into the future. Her son Edward tries to make his way as a man of faith, but he struggles with all he does not understand about his parents, the meaning of family, and the world at large, while working at a stained-glass studio. In 1986, Edward's child Novak—just Novak—is an acrobatic window washer cleaning Manhattan high-rises, a compulsive caretaker soon caught up in the plight of Cecily, a small-town girl remade as a gender-bending Broadway ingenue. And in 2015, Cecily's daughter Flip—a burned-out stoner trapped in purgatorial cohabitation with her ex-girlfriend and a bureaucratic job firing cremains into keepsake glass ornaments—resolves to break the cycle of inherited secrets, reaching back through the generations in search of a family legacy that feels true.
For readers of Mary Beth Keane, Min Jin Lee, and Rebecca Makkai, Glassworks is "an era-spanning, family and chosen-family following, marvel of a debut." (CJ Hauser, author of FAMILY OF ORIGIN)
Praise
“Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s first novel is a generation-spanning epic of family, inheritance, and identity . . . With richly drawn characters and deft storytelling, Glassworks is a beautifully crafted, memorable debut.”
—Booklist, Starred Review
“Kaleidoscopic in its sweep, without sentimentality or showiness … Glassworks warrants our attention and our admiration. With its gripping turns and subtle prose, it is a near-perfect debut.”
—The Washington Post
“This captivating saga that feels as taut and fragile as the glass-blown ornaments at the center of it follows four generations of people who discover that one wrong choice can echo across the ages. It's a twisty tale of love, chosen family, hard choices and harder people that picks up speed as it goes, careening breathlessly toward the last page.”
―Good Housekeeping, Best Books of 2023 So Far
“This sophisticated debut from Wolfgang-Smith traces an evolving emotional legacy through four generations of a family while examining the basic question of 'how to love something without letting it have everything' … Wolfgang-Smith writes like a glass blower, patiently building and enhancing to create durable beauty. Simply put, this is a wonderful, wonderful book.”
―Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“So deeply imagined and immersive that reading it felt like an invitation: Shatter what needs to be shattered and mold your story from what's left … I needed this novel, both for its cathartic devastation and the hope found in its wreckage.”
―The New York Times
“Wolfgang-Smith's writing―a heady blend of rich descriptions and discerning insights―makes [Glassworks] a striking read.”
―WBUR.org
“A page-turner, a work of gorgeous prose, a rollicking good story, brilliant observations about the human experience, and characters I sometimes forget I do not know in real life. … If Elizabeth McCracken and David Mitchell had a lovechild, it might look a bit like this era-spanning, family and chosen-family following, marvel of a debut.
—CJ Hauser, author of The Crane Wife and Family of Origin
“Wolfgang-Smith contends with vocation, identity, and the meaning of family in her appealing debut… As the various threads tie together, the author makes clever use of her central metaphor, considering glass as sharp, fluid, changeable, and even surprising-much like the characters she depicts. This is a radiant exploration of a complex legacy.”
―Publishers Weekly
“With warmth, vividness, and humor, Wolfgang-Smith examines what we inherit and what is lost to silence and shows us how people come into themselves alongside the fragile legacies they build. A dazzling new voice.”
—Cara Blue Adams, author of You Never Get It Back, a New York Times Editors’ Choice
“In Olivia Wolfgang-Smith's emotive novel Glassworks, four generations struggle under the weight of unexpressed feelings, unsaid words, and unmet needs … Always, there is a Novak at the center of the story, reaching with breathless anticipation for happiness, stability, comfort, and forgiveness. Glassworks is a layered, lyrical family saga about love and determination.”
—Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
“[Glassworks] is a captivating and warm epic.”
―Debutiful, Can't-Miss Debut Books You Should Read in May
“In her brilliant and expansive debut, Glassworks, Olivia Wolfgang-Smith opens a window into the lives of four individuals separated across time and bound together by blood and vocation—here, glass is science, an art, an obstacle, a means for income, and the preserver of mystery. As these characters search for purpose and reason in their specific timelines, Wolfgang-Smith guides them with an empathetic eye, allowing them to act with pure heart and gumption, and daring readers to do the same. A refreshing, queer novel packed with found families, buried secrets, and intricate imagery, Glassworks is—simply put—stunning.”
—Christopher Gonzalez, author of I’m Not Hungry But I Could Eat
“An astonishing multigenerational saga from a once-in-a-generation talent.”
—Jake Wolff, author of The History of Living Forever
“Rendered in achingly gorgeous prose, Glassworks sweeps across generations, forging an engrossing portrait of a complex inheritance—a wise and inventive debut.”
—Jennine Capó Crucet, author of Make Your Home Among Strangers