"Riveting."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Remarkable"—Alicia Erian, author of Towelhead

"Wonderful."—Sarah McNally, McNally Jackson Books (NY)

"Deeply moving."—Sheryl Cotleur, Book Passage (CA)

"The most astonishing debut in years.”—Nürnberger Nachrichten (Germany)

Russian-born Alina Bronsky has been the subject of constant praise and debate since her debut novel, Broken Glass Park, was published in Germany in 2008. She has been hailed as a literary prodigy and her novel as “an explosive debut” (Emma Magazine). Now, Broken Glass Park makes its first appearance in English in Tim Mohr’s masterful translation.

The heroine of this engrossing and thoroughly contemporary novel is seventeen-year-old Sascha Naimann. Sascha was born in Moscow, but now lives in Berlin with her two younger siblings and, until recently, her mother. She is precocious, independent, street-wise, and, since her stepfather murdered her mother several months ago, an orphan. Unlike most of her companions, she doesn’t dream of escaping from the tough housing project where they live. Sascha’s dreams are different: she longs to write a novel about her beautiful but naïve mother and she wants to end the life of Vadim, the man who brutally murdered her. Sascha’s story, as touching as any in recent literature, is that of a young woman consumed by two competing impulses, one celebrative and redemptive, the other murderous. In a voice that is candid and self-confident, at times childlike and at others all too mature, Sascha relates the universal and timeless struggle between those forces that can destroy us, and those that lead us back from sorrow and pain to life itself. Germany’s Freundin Magazine called Broken Glass Park “a gripping portrayal of life on the margins of society.” But Sascha’s story does not remain on the margins; it goes straight to the heart of what it means to be young, alive, and conscious in these first decades of the new century.

Alina Bronsky
The Daily Beast calls Alina Bronsky "an exciting new voice in the literary world." Bronsky is the author of Broken Glass Park and The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, which was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Born in Yekaterinburg, an industrial town at the foot of the Ural Mountains in central Russia, Bronsky now lives in Berlin.

• Sep 11 2012
  The Loopy Librarian: "[To read] Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky is to be consumed."
  
• Oct 6 2010
  Three Percent: "Achingly beautiful."
  
• Sep 28 2010
  Elevate Difference: "A fascinating read."
  
• Sep 5 2010
  The Quarterly Conversation: "Old-fashioned storytelling at its best."
  
• Jun 23 2010
  Boston Bibliophile: "I've yet to read anything that speaks so honestly and movingly about the damage inflicted on children and families."
  
• Jun 17 2010
  Devourer of Books: "Beautifully written and beautifully translated."