The Glass Forest

by Cynthia Swanson

  13. Do you think Ruby made the right decisions regarding her father and uncle? Why or why not?

  14. What significance does open water hold for Silja, Angie, and Ruby?

  Enhance Your Book Club

  1. The author paints a descriptive picture of Silja’s life in the Alku. What else can you learn about the Finnish socialists in Brooklyn? What role did they play in shaping New York City? Have your book club members research Finntown and early twentieth-century socialism and share their findings with the group.

  2. Many well-known midcentury modern architects designed residences similar to the Glasses’ house. Have your group research MCM architects and find photos of homes similar to the Glasses’. Discuss the pros and cons of living in a “glass house.”

  3. The author mentions Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca as inspiration for The Glass Forest. Have your book club members read Rebecca. What parallels to The Glass Forest can you find in Rebecca?

  4. Silja meets David at an event where Paul Robeson was scheduled to perform. What can you learn about Robeson and his music? What other artists were Robeson’s contemporaries?

  A Conversation with Cynthia Swanson

  Your first book, The Bookseller, is also set in post–World War II America. What draws you to this period in American history? Is it challenging to write in a time period different from your own?

  It was a period of enormous societal change, and I find those social issues fascinating. Everyday circumstances in midcentury America are unfathomable in the present day. For example, it’s hard to imagine a world in which a woman whose husband wouldn’t grant her a divorce could only become legally free of him if she proved he’d cheated on her. Our current times are also filled with much change, and I think we can look to history to see mistakes we don’t want to repeat.

  Beyond that, I absolutely love researching and writing about this time period because of the details: music, clothes, architecture, automobiles. Research has always been one of my favorite parts of writing—I’m constantly learning as I work, which makes the process all the more rewarding.

  The book centers on three locations—Door County, Wisconsin; the Alku in Brooklyn; and Westchester County, New York. Why did you choose these locations as the settings for your story? What research did you do to bring these areas to life in The Glass Forest?

  Each location has its own purpose. Family friends own a cottage in Door County (which is often described as the “Cape Cod of the Midwest”) and I’ve spent a lot of time there. I needed Angie to be from a small town, and Baileys Harbor fit the bill. I spent my childhood and adolescence in northern Westchester, and my senses and memories of that area are vivid. It was pure luck to stumble across the Alku in my research. I wanted Silja to be Caucasian and a second-generation American growing up in Brooklyn, but not Catholic or Jewish. In trying to determine an ethnicity for her, I came across the socialists in Finntown (now known as Sunset Park) who built the Alku—the first co-op in the United States. Because I didn’t know the area, I contacted a real estate agent who had a listing in the Alku. He was kind enough to give me a tour of the apartment for sale, as well as the entire building. It turned out he’d done extensive research himself on the neighborhood, and he gave me a booklet he’d put together that explained the history of Finntown and each of the co-ops built there in the early twentieth century.

  In addition to your writing, you are also an avid designer. How did your passion for design factor into The Glass Forest?

  I had a lot of fun designing Silja’s house right along with her. I could picture exactly the type of “dream home” she’d want. I love looking at for-sale postings of midcentury modern homes; I’d take note whenever I ran across one that was something like I imagined Silja’s house to be. In my memory, there were homes like that in Westchester, although I didn’t know anyone who’d lived in one; I personally grew up in a 1920s Tudor, and most of my friends grew up in ranches, split-levels, or old-town Victorians like the Glasses’ house on fictional Lawrence Avenue. Because I didn’t know anyone with a house like Silja’s in that area, I spent a day driving around Westchester, scouting out homes. I found several that looked something like I pictured Silja’s. And the winding roads through the woods were just as I remembered them.

  How do you relate to the women in The Glass Forest? Do you see yourself in these characters?

  There are elements in each of the women that I relate to. I’m fairly driven but also a romantic at heart, as is Silja. Like Angie, I’m generally optimistic and I’m fiercely loyal to those I love. Ruby has trouble fitting in until she finds the right place for her—an experience I also had as a teen and young adult.

  What do you think the future has in store for Angie and Ruby? Do you believe they will remain in touch?

  I tend to write stories with closure, and I think this one is no exception. Ruby was compelled to write a letter to Angie—she needed to have her say—and as readers, we need to know that Ruby is going to be okay. Ruby’s and Angie’s lives took very different paths at the end of The Glass Forest—but if not for each other, neither might have survived. I think they appreciate that about each other, but each moves on in her own sphere.

  You went to college with the intention of becoming an architect. What made you switch gears and focus on writing?

  I was a writer before I discovered my love for architecture. I started writing as a kid and never really stopped. When I was an architecture major, I kept sneaking off to the English department to take creative writing electives. At a certain point, it became clear that I needed to follow my heart. I still love design but I’m happy to call it a side passion.

  In interviews you’ve said that you wrote The Bookseller in fifteen-minute increments. Was the writing process for The Glass Forest similar or did your process change for this novel?

  When I wrote The Bookseller, I had young kids at home, a freelance writing career, and very little free time. My life is altered now because my children are older and I’m mostly writing fiction. So I have more time to write novels, but now I also need to nurture the other aspects of a novelist’s career—promoting my books, staying active and engaged with readers, meeting with book clubs, and doing other events. My process for The Glass Forest was just as fragmented as it had been with The Bookseller, but the fragments were different. And certainly they were longer than fifteen minutes this time around.

  Which authors inspire your own writing? Were there specific books that helped you imagine The Glass Forest?

  In the acknowledgements for The Glass Forest, I mention Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, as well as Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Rebecca, in my view, is the quintessential literary thriller—du Maurier includes all the elements of a page-turning mystery, but with a depth of story and character that not all mysteries achieve. Revolutionary Road is one of those novels that simply stays with me every time I reread it. All the optimism the characters feel is shattered by the reality that they can’t actually have it all. It’s not, by any means, a book with a happy ending. But there’s a quiet strength in sad stories, a strength that we, as readers, don’t always feel when everything gets tied up in a neat, happy bow at the end.

  How have writers groups and the literary community helped your writing career?

  I’m lucky to live in a city with a thriving literary scene. We have wonderful independent bookstores, a dynamic nonprofit (Lighthouse Writers) that fosters the careers of writers in all genres and at all levels, and many people who are committed to bringing more and bigger book events to Denver. I also belong to a number of online writing groups that are lively and informative—Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Binders, and several local groups. If only they weren’t so distracting! I could chat about writing all day long, but I log off when it’s time to dig in and work.

  What is the best writing advice you’ve received?

  If you want to be a writer, be a reader first. Read in the genre you write in, but others as well. Learn to read with a critical
eye: what did you like, what didn’t you like, and—most important—why? I have a writer friend who reads the ending of a book first, because as she reads the story, she wants to see if the author can plausibly get her from point A to point B. I don’t take it quite that far—I like to let the story unfold as the author intended it—but I do believe it’s crucial for writers to give readers a satisfying experience. Readers are investing their precious free time in words that I wrote. As an author, I never let myself forget that.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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  © GLENDA CEBRIAN PHOTOGRAPHY

  Cynthia Swanson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Bookseller. An Indie Next selection and the winner of the 2016 WILLA Award for historical fiction, The Bookseller is being translated into more than a dozen languages. Cynthia has published short fiction in numerous journals and was a Pushcart Prize nominee. She lives with her family in Denver, Colorado. The Glass Forest is her second novel.Find her at CynthiaSwansonAuthor.com.

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  Touchstone

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by Cynthia Swanson

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Touchstone hardcover edition February 2018

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  Interior design by Jill Putorti

  Jacket design by Lucy Kim

  Jacket images: Windows © Diana Lee Angstadt/Moment/Getty Images, Forest © Willem Douven/EyeEm/Getty Images, Silhouettes from Shutterstock

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Swanson, Cynthia, 1965- author.

  Title: The glass forest / by Cynthia Swanson.

  Description: First Touchstone hardcover edition. | New York : Touchstone,

  2018.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017027541| ISBN 9781501172090 (hardcover) | ISBN

  9781501172106 (tradepaper) | ISBN 9781501172113 (ebook)

  Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Suspense. | FICTION / Psychological. | FICTION /

  Literary. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3619.W35945 G58 2018 | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017027541

  ISBN 978-1-5011-7209-0

  ISBN 978-1-5011-7211-3 (ebook)