The personal and the political are so intricately interwoven in The Glass Room I felt as if I was living through the times the book itself inhabits; and the relationships are so emotionally full (and sometimes not, but both drive the story). And then there's the glass room or the glass house itself, which is a character in its own right. The Glass Room was recommended to me by a friend who rates it the best novel he's read (and we're both of a similarly ancient age ... and both read many novels, although he's much more methodical about the results of his reading: he lists the books he's read and what he feels about them - I simply write reviews here or, in the past, on Goodreads). I don't quite agree with his 'best novel he's ever read' but it's high up there among my favourites. The Glass Room also does a thing that I love in novels: it informs about a time in history and illustrates the effect that time still has on us now through its characters. And the language is lovely.