The Glass Room

In September 2009 The Glass Room was one of six novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.^[2] It was named a best book of 2009 by The Economist, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, London Evening Standard, The Observer, and Slate.com.^{[citation needed]} It was favourably reviewed by The Washington Post.^[3]

The daughter of the former owners of villa Tugendhat Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat says that she and the whole family disapproves of the book:"For me, it is another theft. First, the Nazis took our house and now Mawer took our story. That novel isn't about our family, it is against our family. It makes me terribly angry." She also adds that despite Mawer claims that the book is not about the family Tugendhat, things will get mixed up and at the end everybody will believe that this is the true story of the house and the family:"Why did he invent such a Mickeymouse-family where he tells incredible lies about my father? Can you imagine somebody writing a book about your parents full of lies? Without ever contacting anybody from the family? ... It is not a good book. The only reason it got famous is because he wrote about the villa Tugendhat. For me, they are parasites that want to get their glory out of the house."^[4]

• Other Press website for The Glass Room
• The Glass Room, By Simon Mawer, Review in The Telegraph, 14 January 2009
• Design for Living, Review in The Guardian, 24 January 2009
• The Glass Room, By Simon Mawer, Review in The Independent, 13 February 2009
• The Glass Room, Review in The New Yorker
• Villa Tugendhat, Brno and the novel by Simon Mawer