Broken Glass Park

“Sometimes I think I’m the only one in our neighborhood with any worthwhile dreams.  I have two, and there’s no reason to be ashamed of either one.  I want to kill Vadim.  And I want to write a book about my mother.”

Meet Sascha, 17, sister to Alissa and Anton, great-niece  of Maria, Moscow-born resident of the tough Berlin housing project known as The Emerald, star  student at the prestigious Alfred Delp school (“I was the only one with an ‘immigrant background’, the heavyweight when it came to diversity”),  and terror to all.  Vadim, Sascha’s stepfather, killed her mother several years ago and ever since Sascha has planned revenge.  Sascha inherited her mother’s intelligence, wit, and devotion to family, but growing up in the Emerald and in Broken Glass Park nearby have made her harder, sharper, fearless.  Or so Sascha thinks.  This revenge fantasy- cum- bildungsroman reads like the mashup of Virginie Despentes and The Catcher In The Rye we never knew we needed.

Broken Glass Park, Alina Bronsky’s debut, was first published in Germany in 2008 to great acclaim.  It was translated into English by Tim Mohr.

You may purchase this book directly from Europa Editions.