Broken Glass Park: A Novel

by Alina Bronsky, Tim Mohr (Translator)

Overview

In this “riveting debut” a Russian teenager living in Berlin dreams of taking revenge on the man who killed her mother—“A stark, moving tale of resiliency” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

A finalist for the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize

Now an award-winning motion pictureSeventeen-year-old Sascha Naimann was born in Moscow, but now lives in Berlin with her two younger siblings. She is precocious, independent, streetwise, and ever since her stepfather Vadim murdered her mother several months ago, an orphan. Unlike most of her peers, Sascha doesn’t dream of escaping the grim housing project where they live. Sascha’s dreams of writing a novel about her beautiful but naïve mother . . . and of taking Vadim’s life.
In a voice that is candid and self-confident, by turns childlike and mature, Sascha relates the internal struggle between those forces that can destroy us, and those that lead us out of sorrow and back to life. Broken Glass Park goes straight to the heart of what it means to be young, alive, and conscious in these first decades of the new millenium.

“A gripping portrayal of life on the margins of society.”—Freundin magazine(Germany)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933372969
Publisher:	Europa Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/30/2010
Pages:	221
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Russian-born Alina Bronksy is the author of Broken Glass Park (Europa, 2010); The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine (Europa, 2011), named a Best Book of 2011 by The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and Publisher's Weekly; and Just Call Me Superhero (Europa, 2014).

Tim Mohr spent the 1990s as a club DJ in Berlin and much of the next decade as a staff editor at Playboy magazine. He is the translator of Guantanamo, by Dorothea Dieckmann, which won the Three Percent award for best translation of 2007, and Wetlands, by Charlotte Roche. He is currently at work on his own book, a history of the punk music scene in East Germany.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Whether it's autobiographical or not, Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion, capturing the egotism and need of a girl just beginning to understand her own power." -Vogue

"Surprising, poetic, extremely well-crafted . . . recalls the narrative art of Zadie Smith."- K÷lner Stadtrevue

"The most exciting new arrival of the season."-Der Spiegel

"An explosive debut."-Emma Magazine

"Youthful, fast-paced, at times sad, never sugarcoated. Broken Glass Park tells the story of a marvelous reawakening."-Modern Zeiten

"Playful, audacious and brimming with verve . . . A gripping read."-Book Reporter (Germany)

"The literature industry has a new prodigy! Bronsky is an immense talent."- Focus (Germany).

Editorial Reviews

Sascha Naimann is nobody's fool. At 17, she's wise beyond her years, an improbable mixture of naïveté and grit, innocence and skepticism, a young woman of considerable talents, just shy of maturity. Born in Moscow and now living in Berlin with her two younger siblings — all orphaned two years ago — Sascha is much better at gauging life's complexities than her mother ever was — a woman who, for all her other good qualities, was incapable of recognizing when it was time to show a man the door. When she finally did, the man in question returned and shot her.

Fiercely independent yet understandably wary, Sascha has no intention of moving on or letting go. Friends, school, the self-absorption and silliness of adolescence — none of these appeal to her. Her dreams now are fueled by vengeance and provide all the company she needs. Sascha's resolute voice, mordant humor, and rueful honesty guide the reader through her days, but her revenge is derailed by new acquaintances and unexpected events.

Swiftly paced and meticulously crafted, Broken Glass Park introduces an iconic contemporary heroine — a young woman who seizes life on her own terms, whose wisdom comes at great cost, and whose singular achievement is to hold tight to her faith. It's a story that is as unforgettable as they come.

Praise for Broken Glass Park


“What a literary creation! No wonder this book was such a sensation in Europe.”
—Shelf Awareness

“A riveting debut.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
 
“Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion.”
—Vogue

“Bronsky instinctively understands that the way to a reader’s heart is through great characters.”
—Library Journal

“A vivid depiction of contemporary adolescence under pressure.”
—Boston Globe

“Dealing with universal themes in the context of very modern problems, Bronsky adds an exciting new voice to the literary world.”
—The Daily Beast

“A sharp and funny first novel.”
—The Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Surprising, poetic, extremely well-crafted...recalls the narrative art of Zadie Smith."
–Kölner Stadtrevue

"The most exciting new arrival of the season."
—Der Spiegel

"An explosive debut."
—Emma Magazine

"Youthful, fast-paced, at times sad, never sugarcoated. Broken Glass Park tells the story of a marvelous reawakening."
—Modern Zeiten

"Playful, audacious and brimming with verve...A gripping read."
—Book Reporter (Germany)

"The literature industry has a new prodigy! Bronsky is an immense talent."
—Focus (Germany)


Praise for Alina Bronsky's The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine


“Bronsky’s great gift is humor.”
—The Los Angeles Times

“Mordantly funny.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle

“A masterful study in delusion.”
—The Financial Times

“A very funny and a very dark black comedy.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“[Rose is] one of the most fascinating women in the world.”
—The Millions

“What begins as a cruel comic romp ends as a surprisingly winning story of hardship and resilience.”
—The New Yorker

“Bronsky’s lean writing style . . . propels the reader from page to page.”
—Shelf Awareness

“I plan to . . . read whatever comes next from this important new literary voice.”
—Ms. Magazine
  

Praise for Alina Bronsky
 
“Alina Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion.”
—Vogue
 
“Bronsky instinctively understands that the way to a reader’s heart is through great characters.”
—Library Journal
 
“Bronsky’s great gift is humor.”
—The Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

This debut novel, which was nominated for the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, reveals a strong voice that's simultaneously biting and accessible. Its narrator, precocious 17-year-old Sacha, lives in a housing project in Berlin populated by Russian immigrants. She's at the top of the class in her exclusive private school and has two goals in life: to kill her stepfather and to write a book about her mother tentatively titled "The Story of an Idiotic, Redheaded Woman Who Would Still Be Alive if Only She Had Listened to Her Smart, Oldest Daughter." This modern coming-of-age story follows Sacha as she ventures further afield. It is unfortunate that Bronsky's depiction of the immigrant community veers into stereotype because, as an émigré herself, she is uniquely situated to critique her fellow travelers. Additionally, while translator Mohr's prose is pitch-perfect, the way his notes are inserted in the text distracts from the flow of the narrative. VERDICT This is the kind of book one expects to see on high school reading lists. It faces difficult issues head-on, and its edginess will appeal to teens.—Karen Walton Morse, Univ. at Buffalo Libs.

Library Journal

In her riveting debut, Bronsky gives us Sascha Naimann, a 17-year-old Russian immigrant living in Germany who narrates a brutal story with a sharp, canny voice. Sascha is determined to kill her stepfather, Vadim, who murdered her mother, but with Vadim in prison and social workers hovering, Vadim's cousin, Maria, arrives to care for Sascha and her younger stepsiblings. A puff piece in the local paper about Vadim's supposed reformation sends a livid Sascha to the newspaper office, where she meets Volker Trebur, an editor who, having briefly known Sascha's mother, offers to make things right. Sascha quickly takes him up on the offer, moving in to Volker's guestroom and beginning an intense involvement with Volker's family—particularly his teenage son. When that flames out, Sascha ends up in “broken glass park,” the dangerous area in her neighborhood where drugs, booze, and rough sex prevail. Sascha's hunger for life shines through her relentless fight to leave behind a painful childhood—a struggle complicated by an unexpected twist in the final act—making for a stark, moving tale of resiliency and survival. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

A lively debut novel with a cheerfully cynical narrator, first published in Germany in 2008, from Russian-born Bronsky. The focus of the narrative is the consciousness of Sascha Naimann, a 17-year-old emigre from Russia to Germany. She's skeptical, witty, loving, intimidating, vulnerable-and understandably furious that her stepfather, Vadim, murdered her mother a few months before the story opens. What enrages her most is that he's in prison and thus out of reach of her fury, but she nevertheless plots revenge with feverish intensity. Sascha is now more or less in charge of her two younger siblings, the precocious Anton and the adorable Alissa. They all live in the Emerald, a disjunctively named public-housing project that is scarcely the jewel of Berlin. After a breathless and almost admiring article about Vadim appears in a local rag, Sascha shows up at the editorial office to set the record straight. There she meets Volker, an older man she quickly becomes enamored with and seeks out as a refuge from her wretched life in the projects. When Volker takes Sascha home, she gets more than she bargained for because she also meets Volker's son Felix, a weak and chronically ill teenager who in turn becomes smitten with Sascha. They both quickly lose their virginity, and later that same night Sascha is accosted by Volker. Although "nothing happens," he's ashamed of his behavior and still courts Sascha's friendship. At one point Peter the Great invites Sascha to "Broken Glass Park," a wooded area known as a place where sketchy characters smoke dope and do other dark deeds, but it also becomes a metaphor for the unassailably bleak landscape inhabited by the narrator. Sascha becomes infuriatedwhen she learns that Vadim has supposedly repented for his crime and then hanged himself in his jail cell, but she also finds that this act liberates her into the possibility of a more positive existence, one not based on a desire for bloody vengeance. A touching story, both tough and tender. Author tour to Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta

Kirkus Reviews