The Glass Woman

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I turn to face the sea and I walk. I am overwhelmed by the sensation of lightness, as if the stones weigh nothing. It is a return to the still waters, after a lifetime of currents and drift. I love books set in harsh bleak cold environments. This book is hauntingly atmospheric, cold and foreboding. The landscape and winter season are just as much a character in this book. Harsh, unforgiving and cold. This book felt Gothic in nature and has been compared to Jane Eyre and Rebecca. There is a dark mystery here as well as tales of longing and love. A group of villagers gathered to watch and talk, but there was one man among them who remained silent; because he knew the who the person under under the ice had been and he knew how that person had come to be there …. Rósa has always dreamed of living a simple life alongside her Mamma in their remote village in Iceland, where she prays to the Christian God aloud during the day, whispering enchantments to the old gods alone at night. But after her father dies abruptly and her Mamma becomes ill, Rósa marries herself off to a visiting trader in exchange for a dowry, despite rumors of mysterious circumstances surrounding his first wife's death.

My second reservation was that the structure didn’t work as well as it should. At first the story was told purely from Rósa’s point of view, but some way into the book another perspective was added into the mix. I completely understood the need for that second voice, it enriched the story but I wish it had been introduced a little earlier and that the transitions had been done with a little more finesse. I wasn't all that happy with the ending. I felt there were many unanswered questions and I'd have liked Jon to survive. One thing I felt from the beginning is that Jon did not kill Anna. I am glad I was right in that respect. I actually came to like him as a character.I thought I might be a retelling of a traditional story, and I might have been in the beginning; but in time that story was subverted quite beautifully, and I found that the truth of this story and its characters were not at all as I had expected. Both Rósa and Jón were fascinating characters to get involved with and it was a joy and a privilege to watch their development, especially Rosa’s, as this was a woman living in 1686 who was educated, wise beyond her years and knew what she wanted in life. As the book progressed so did their characters and I loved watching them evolve. The book is quite slow in pace, however, the story was so absorbing that the slowness wasn’t an issue.

The were moments of brilliance in the writing, but something was definitely missing, and I suspect that this was that I was never able to form a true connection to anyone in the story. The whole thing is entirely gorgeously addictive, I found the growing relationship between Rosa and Jon utterly riveting, with the community around them and it’s suspicious nature both dividing them and drawing them together. The book's writing is gorgeous and sweeping and that, together with the vivid characterizations make this a book well worth reading.I read this in one day and found this tale to be both riveting and completely absorbing. I didn't want to put it down. Rosa grows as a character in this book as does the truth and the motivations behind certain characters behavior. This is a beautifully written and gripping tale of superstition, culture, love/forbidden love, culture, and survival. The storytelling kept me close to her, and while it moved slowly at times I realised that it had to, to catch the reality of Rósa’s situation. Filled with Icelandic saga references and superstitions, this is a story that I found bewitching. The beginning was a bit difficult for me to adjust to with the use of old language, but I could not stop reading. This novel kept me engaged throughout. I was constantly trying to figure out how did Jon’s first wife die? How did he kill her, or did he have someone else do it? What are the mysterious noises in his croft? Will Rosa be safe, or will she run, or will the marriage grow into love? What about her and Pall? Is Petur to be trusted? Anyone who has read Hannah Kent's novel, Burial Rites, already knows that croft-life in Iceland in the olden days was hard. In The Glass Woman we discover that 140 years earlier, it was even harder. Not enough food, warmth or light. Too much smoke, gossip and superstition. The writing was dark and lovely, and it caught the time, the place and the atmosphere wonderfully well.