The Glass House: A Novel

by Beatrice Colin

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250152510
Publisher:	Flatiron Books
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	1,087,555
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Beatrice Colin was a novelist based in Glasgow. The Glimmer Palace (2008), a novel set in Berlin in the early 20th century, was translated into eight languages, was a Richard and Judy pick, and was short-listed for several major awards. Colin also wrote radio plays and adaptations for BBC Radio 4.

Editorial Reviews

In Britain at the turn of the last century, orchids are all the rage and a fortune can be made by selling off the rarest specimens. But what drives the horticultural explorers in Beatrice Colin’s The Glass House is more than the thrill of discovery or the excitement of outfoxing the competition. And what motivates the women they leave behind is even more complicated.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Lyrical… Immersive… Alluring… Family secrets add to the intrigue… Colin’s final work is a fine achievement.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Lush Eastern landscapes and the rare subjects of botanical quests and obsessions, are complemented by eloquent descriptions of the beauty of the Scottish countryside and coastline…Colin’s meandering tale has room for surprises, suspense, and soul-searching in its journey toward a cinematic conclusion.”
—Kirkus

“Colin’s lovely storytelling conveys the stark reality of women’s lives in the post-Victorian era...For fans of historical and women’s fiction.”
—Library Journal

“Balmarra itself is another character in the story, filled with family treasures and portraits, with a spectacular glass house on the grounds containing rare plant specimens from all over the world. Offer this to fans of historical fiction, women’s stories, and Scotland.”
—Booklist

“A deftly crafted and absorbing novel populated with a cast of memorable characters and unexpected plot twists, The Glass House by Beatrice Colin is an elegant story by an author with a genuine flair for originality and a consistently entertaining and narrative driven storytelling style.”
—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

07/13/2020

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. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

08/14/2020

It's 1912, and Balmarra, the once-grand Scottish estate, has become a burden. Under the thumb of her penny-pinching husband, Malcolm, Antonia McCulloch struggles to maintain the house and gardens her late father held so dear. One evening, her lonely and predictable life is turned upside down when an unknown sister-in-law appears on her doorstep. Determined to make the best of the situation and get to know her estranged brother's wife, Antonia tries to accommodate her guest. Much to her chagrin, Cicely Pick has traveled from India with her young daughter to claim her husband's inheritance, only to discover there's been a delay in the reading of the will. The aloof Cicely continually rebuffs Antonia's gestures of friendship, while growing increasingly irritated with the selfish demands of Malcolm. VERDICT Colin's (To Capture What We Cannot Keep) lovely storytelling conveys the stark reality of women's lives in the post-Victorian era. While vastly different in personality and temperament, Antonia and Cicely are similarly pigeonholed into roles not of their choosing, but the result of decisions made by the men in their lives. For fans of historical and women's fiction. —Vicki Briner, Broomfield, CO

Library Journal

2020-07-01
At the turn of the 20th century, the stultified equilibrium in a Scottish manor is thrown out of kilter when a “stranger” appears at the door in Colin’s posthumously published novel.

Antonia McCulloch, the apparent heiress to Balmarra House—her father’s expansive estate in the west of Scotland—lives a quiet life there with her barrister husband, Malcolm, and a dwindling staff of household help. The once-grand manor of Edward Pick, who made his fortune in tobacco and sugar and was an avid amateur horticulturalist, Balmarra has fallen into disrepair since his death but for the spectacular glass house (a greenhouse to Americans) that is the property’s, and the novel’s, centerpiece. Antonia’s only sibling, George, decamped years before for a life of trekking and botanical exploration in India, heightening Antonia’s resentment at the strictures put upon her: a lack of higher education, a thwarted artistic career, and a dreary routine of domesticity. When George’s beautiful and enigmatic wife, Cicely, and young daughter, Kitty, arrive from Darjeeling for an unannounced stay at Balmarra, Antonia’s frumpish existence is challenged, as is her understanding of her family’s history, during the ensuing competition for the estate’s ownership. Cicely’s mixed racial heritage becomes the basis of gossip and discussion among other local landowners and, ultimately, becomes the sympathetically handled focus of a crucial point in Colin’s jam-packed, Byzantine storyline. Descriptions of the world beyond Balmarra, including lush Eastern landscapes and the rare subjects of botanical quests and obsessions, are complemented by eloquent descriptions of the beauty of the Scottish countryside and coastline (and contrast with the inhumanity that is the source of ugliness and misunderstanding).

Colin’s meandering tale has room for surprises, suspense, and soul-searching in its journey toward a cinematic conclusion.

Kirkus Reviews