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The House with the Stained-Glass Window

The House with the Stained-Glass Window

Author(s): Zanna Sloniowska

Location(s): Lviv

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Later 20th Century

Location

Content

In 1989, Marianna, the beautiful star soprano at the Lviv opera, is shot dead in the street as she leads the Ukrainian citizens in their protest against Soviet power. Only eleven years old at the time, her daughter tells the story of their family before and after that critical moment – including, ten years later, her own passionate affair with an older, married man.

Just like their home city of Lviv, which stands at the crossroads of nations and cultures, the women in this family have had turbulent lives, scarred by war and political turmoil, but also by their own inability to show each other their feelings. Lyrically told, this is the story of a young girl’s emotional, sexual, artistic and political awakening as she matures under the influence of her relatives, her mother’s former lover, her city and its fortunes.

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

Author: tripfiction

In Lviv, four generations of women inhabit an old house containing a gigantic stained-glass window which makes the building an architectural treasure.  There is ancient Great-Granma, a failed opera singer, who spends most of...

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