Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky

Broken Glass Park Reviews

• 
  Orsodimondo

  REGOLE DI VITA E DI MORTE
  
  
  La migliore Lisbeth Salander, secondo me, splendidamente interpretata dalla magnifica Rooney Mara nel molto più convincente adattamento americano, opera di David Fincher (2011).
  
  È bella la storia di Sasha, anche se in realtà è terribilmente tragica: è Alina Bronsky che sa renderla bella.
  
  Adottando l'io narrante e scegliendo una lingua diretta, senza fronzoli e orpelli - costruendo un racconto teso, asciutto, che progredisce anche durante i flash back.
  
  
  Noomi Rapace, la prima Lisbeth Salander, quella della trilogia cinematografica svedese: mi hanno deluso, lei e i tre film.
  
  Mi ricorda molto Lisbeth Salander, questa giovane Sasha: a differenza di Lisbeth, ha due fratelli più piccoli, cui è molto legata - e ha amato moltissimo la mamma.
  È più giovane di Lisbeth, ha solo diciassette anni.
  Come Lisbeth, cerca vendetta da un padre assassino.
  Sasha non chiede nulla a nessuno, e nel ghetto russo della città tedesca dove lei e i fratellini si sono trasferiti a vivere, si muove in mezzo alla violenza delle strade dove volano sassi e bottiglie vuote, gli amori difficili, l’integrazione nel nuovo paese tanto dura anche per una ragazza dall’intelligenza affilata come la sua.
  Sa come agire, come muoversi, dotata di volontà ferrea, pur senza vincere il disagio e mantenendo il disincanto.
  
  
  Jasna Fritzi Bauer in “Scherbenpark“ di Bettina Blümner 2013, la Sasha nel film tedesco tratto dal romanzo della Bronsky.
  
  Particolari che la rendono più 'umana' di Lisbeth, pur lasciandola altrettanto tosta.
  È impossibile non affezionarsi a lei, ad Anton, alla piccola Alissa che dice di essere grande perché ha già quattro anni.
  
  Benvenuta questa nuova scrittrice che nel suo romanzo mischia culture e razze in un tonificante concentrato.
  
  
  Scherbenpark, titolo originale del romanzo della Bronsky e del film – “Broken Glass Park” nella versione inglese.
• 
  Michelle

  I have a serious case of review writer’s block. Actually, it's more like review writer's ennui, but I felt compelled to write a little about this one. Do you ever read blurbs on the backs of books? Well, I sometimes do even though the same adjectives are recycled over and over again ad nauseam. If you do, don’t read the blurbs on the back of this one. I am so sick of something being termed ‘riveting’ when it is merely ‘mildly engaging.’ Also, ‘Extremely well-crafted’ should have been replaced with ‘Moderately crafted.’ Also, this book was neither ‘unflinching’ nor ‘rare.’ Hard life stories are a dime a dozen (cliché!) these days.
  
  On her book cover, Bronsky is praised as a prodigy who has written ‘an explosive debut.’ Yes, I know I should stop reading blurbs. I understood what Bronsky was trying to do, but she did not quite manage her goal.
  
  This is what my blurb would say: Yet another hard life story. This one was written by a young Eastern-European woman with average talent. The heroine of the novel is pissed off, and rightly so, but her story doesn’t make the reader feel much more than her anger.
• 
  Karen

  This started strongly and then petered out. I was interested in the narrator while she was talking about her family and her plans, but very quickly the plot seemed to start turning on coincidence, and I lost hold of the narrator's motivations. The overall theme of the book seems to be: men, what to do about them. They're violent, they're dumb, they're sexually abusive...but they're everywhere and for a straight woman they're also necessary, at least for some things.Sascha, the 17-year-old narrator, at first dismisses all men, then starts sleeping with and falling in love with them (or something) in complicated, hard-to-understand ways. Her family and their plotline is lost along the wayside while all this is happening. I don't have a lot of patience with stories about women drifting passively through abusive relationships with guys in order to show how bad heterosexuality can be--I'd much rather read Sascha's story without the romantic entanglements, which seemed unlikely to me anyway. In the end, the overall shape of the story felt full and complete. It just wasn't a story I particularly wanted to read.
• 
  Ieva Andriuskeviciene

  Labai gera pradžia ir mintis knygos, bet nuo vidurio pasisuka į paaugliškas meilės istorijas
• 
  Nikki

  I love, love, love the narrator of this story. I fell in love with her instantly and wanted to love the novel too, but I only love the first half. After that, things get weird and oddly violent, yet almost boring at the same time. The anticlimactic ending doesn't help matters either.
• 
  John

  How to do this without a spoiler, or at least plot re-hash?
  
  Told through the voice of Russian-German Sascha, I appreciated the details of her immigrant dual identity, especially regarding the role of cultural and linguistic interpreter for the distant cousin from Russia who becomes the guardian for her, and her siblings. Strong writing that kept me engaged there.
  
  However, much of the later book has to do with her "adventures" (shall we say) away from home, which didn't interest me as much. I read the story specifically as an "Author under 30" challenge component, so perhaps I'm not the target audience for scenes that struck me as vaguely creepy. Skimmed through those, finding the book a worthwhile investment overall. Can't recommend this one enthusiastically, but willing to read more from its talented author.
  
  
  
• 
  Tohoo

  Schwieriges Fazit. Die ersten 120 Seiten sind absolut glänzend geschrieben und machen Lust auf mehr.
  Danach wirkt die Geschichte eher inspirationslos, verliert an Fahrt und Spannung.
  Schade, hier wäre wirklich mehr möglich gewesen.
• 
  Kwoomac

  Sometimes I think I'm the only one in our neighborhood with any worthwhile dreams. I have two, and there's no reason to be ashamed if either one. I want to kill Vadim. And I want to write a book about my mother. I already have a title: The Story of an Idiotic Redheaded Woman Who Would Still Be Alive If Only She Had Listened to Her Smart Oldest Daughter. Or maybe that's more of a subtitle. But I have plenty of time to figure it out because I haven't started writing yet.
  
  I had such high hopes for this novel.I loved the first paragraph and I thought I was going to love the protagonist, 16-year-old Sascha.but I didn't. She and her family emigrated from Russia to Germany when she was younger. They now live in the projects near a patch of woods strewn with broken bottles where most of the kids her age hang out. Not Sascha.
  
  Having witnessed the brutal murder of her mother and mother's boyfriend at the hands of her mother's ex husband (her stepfather Vadim), she is now just full of rage. She really isn't nice to anyone except her two younger siblings. The story takes us on her rage fueled days and nights. I can understand her anger, but it was hard to watch her mistreat people who were kind to her.
  
  Then she has this creepy relationship with an older man,who may or may not have known her mother.
  
  The more I got to know her, the more I disliked her. She's selfish and thoughtless right up to the end. And I hated the ending. But on a brighter note, the writing was great, there were some beautiful turns of phrase. I will try another of her books. Check out the title of her next book:
  The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine
• 
  Beatrix

  Alina Bronsky created a young heroine that readers connect with from the very first page. Sascha Naimann is 17, was born in Russia and immigrated to Germany as a child. She now lives in a run-down housing complex for immigrants in an non-discript suburb of Frankfurt. She is fiercly protective of her young brother and sister and dreams of killing her stepfather and writing a book about her mother: “The Story Of An Idiotic Redheaded Women Who Would Still Be Alive If Only She Had Listened To Her Smart Oldest Daughter”.
  
  From the very first page on Sascha is brutally honest telling us her own story. Her language is at once cristal-clear and perceptive, sensitive and sarcastic, tender and rough. Like Sascha herself who at this young age is full of contrasts. She is strong and very vulnerable, precocious and smart, sensitive and yet strangely distant from her own feelings. Definitely not a one-dimensional character! It’s this honesty that makes her so believable and likeable for the reader. There is no room for embellishments or verbosity, neither in Sascha’s live nor in the book. I love how the precise and concise writing style reflects Sascha’s personality and her fast-paced life. It’s full of energy and leaves me breathless. Her story takes some surprising turns but almost always remains true to the character. Only towards the end of the book the story looses some of its initial momentum and Sascha and her story drift into rather trivial teenage melodrama.
  
  The protagonist is a young adult of 17 years but this is more an adult than a young adult book. While the story seems unusual at first it connects so well with the reader because Sascha’s journey is at the root one that all of us go through - the journey to find and realize the dreams for your life, to find a place to belong, to find love.
• 
  Liz

  3.5 stars. Read this in a day, which is good news for my brain, bad news for my wallet.
  
  I really enjoyed this and would recommend. My main critique is that I wish that one of the book's major settings—the vivienda popular—had been made a bit more palpable. You definitely do get a sense for the setting—the details are in there!—but I wish it had been brought just a teeny bit more to the forefront.
  
  I would describe the plot as somewhat similar to "Fish Tank." The book has a strong premise—teenage girl is broken spiritually and psychologically after her mother's murder by her abusive stepfather—and for me, that's a situation where the emotional stakes feel high enough to propel me through the end, through a story that is pretty episodic (but in a good way).
  
  I liked how the narrator kept making terrible decisions. I liked how her relationship with the older man is handled. I thought the scene where the sleazy guy in the park starts hitting on her, and is startled when she starts flirting back, then she ends up going out on a sex date with him, and it turns out that he's a pathetic White nationalist—it was one of those developments that are both so terrible and hilarious at the same time.
  
  Would I read more from this author? Es posible! I know literally nothing about the Russian immigrant community in Eastern bloc countries and I always enjoy immersing myself in unfamiliar worlds in literature.
• 
  Hannah

  We watch 17 year old Satcha grapple with her unresolved feelings and impulses 2 years after her mother is murdered by her step father. I found this to be well written and interesting but not as gripping as Baba Dunja or Hottest Dishes. A good debut
• 
  John

  Just wow... such a great book. Alina Bronsky has such a great literary voice. There is so much sadness, anger and pain in this book.
  
  English Title is Broken Glass Park, highly recommend it.
• 
  Liesa

  Inhalt: In diesem sehr heißen Sommer ist Sascha siebzehn, und sie hat nur zwei Träume: Sie will ihrer Mutter ein Buch schreiben, und sie will Vadim töten. Was es mit Vadim auf sich hat, warum Sascha ohne Mutter, aber mit ihrer Großtante lebt, wie die Familie durch ein Verbrechen erschüttert und berühmt wurde und was es bedeutet, in ein Dreiecksverhältnis mit einem Journalisten und seinem sechzehnjährigen Sohn zu geraten – all das erzählt sie mit Herz, Witz und einer Energie, die mitreißt.
  
  Meinung: ‘Scherbenpark’ ist ein Buch, das ich schon lange lesen wollte. Ich glaube, es war vor ein oder zwei Jahren, nachdem ein anonymer Leser mir eine Mitteilung in meiner Formspring-Inbox hinterlassen hatte, in der er/sie mich fragte, ob ich das Buch bereits gelesen hätte und wenn nein, dass ich das unbedingt nachholen müsste. Ich setzte ‘Scherbenpark’ also auf meine Amazon-Wunschliste und Anfang des Jahres dann auch auf meine Einkaufsliste und als es ankam, stellte ich es in mein Bücherregal und vergaß es wieder ein bisschen, bis ich vor wenigen Tagen wieder darauf aufmerksam wurde, das Buch aus dem Regal zog und begann es zu lesen.
  
  Für mich war ‘Scherbenpark’ zunächst nur ein Buch für zwischendurch, etwas, was sich schnell lesen lässt, damit ich meinen Goodreads-Challenge-Stand wieder auffrischen kann und nicht mehr so hinterherhinke. Und irgendwie ist ‘Scherbenpark’ das auch, ein Buch, das sich schnell lesen lässt, aber gleichzeitig auch ein Buch, was ein bisschen an einem nagt, mich zum Nachdenken bringt, etwas hinterlässt.
  
  Man wird förmlich in das Geschehen geworfen und kommt dennoch erst ganz langsam hinein, setzt die Puzzleteile erst nach und nach zusammen. Da ist Sascha, die uneheliche Tochter, die mit ihrer Familie von Moskau nach Deutschland kam, da sind ihre Geschwister, der stotternde und schüchterne Anton, die selbstbewusste kleine Alissa und da ist Maria, die Großtante von Sascha, die Cousine von Vadim. Vadim, der ihre Mutter getötet hatte. Der Mord an ihrer Mutter ist der Dreh- und Angelpunkt in Saschas Geschichte. Denn sie will Rache für das, was Vadim ihrer Mutter angetan hat. Und diese Rache soll wohlüberlegt und geplant sein.
  
  Sascha ist keines dieser typischen siebzehnjährigen Mädchen. Sie ist überdurchschnittlich intelligent, sie ist sehr dünn und schön und sie ist ungefähr das stärkste Mädchen, von dem ich jemals lesen durfte. Sie lehnt alles, was mit Liebe zu tun hat, ab und will nur Rache. Sascha scheint im Laufe der Geschichte immer unberechenbarer, selbstzerstörerischer, aggressiver. Sie hat alles verloren und schenkt dem Leben keine weitere Chance, sie scheint unberührbar zu sein und vor allem wenn man zwischen den Zeilen liest bestätigt sich die Vermutung wie hilflos und allein sie sich eigentlich wirklich vorkommt und wie sehr ihr aggressives Äußeres nur ein Schutz vor weiteren Verletzungen ist.
  
  Ich möchte gar nicht weiter über den Inhalt des Buches sprechen, viel mehr möchte ich euch das Buch einfach nur ans Herz legen, falls ihr es bisher noch nicht gelesen habt. Das Buch fesselt insbesondere wegen seines authentischen Schreibstiles, es fesselt, weil es die unerwartesten Wendungen hat, weil Sascha unvorhersehbar handelt und es fesselt, weil man unbedingt wissen möchte, ob Sascha es schafft, ihren Rachefeldzug wirklich auszuführen oder ob es ihr nicht vielleicht sogar gelingt, wieder so etwas wie Lebensfreude und Liebe zu empfinden. Ich hätte ehrlich gesagt noch ungefähr 500 Seiten mehr über Sascha lesen können und bin begeistert darüber, dass die Autorin noch einige weitere Bücher veröffentlich hat, die zwar nichts mehr mit Sascha zu tun haben, aber sicherlich genauso spannend und fantastisch geschrieben sind wie ihr Debütroman ‘Scherbenpark.’ Für mich eines der absoluten must-reads und ich bedanke mich hiermit noch einmal bei der anonymen Person, wegen der das Buch überhaupt erst auf meine Einkaufsliste wandern durfte.
• 
  Sophie

  A coming of age story about Sacha a very intelligent (and knows it) but psychologically damaged 17-year-old girl living in a German apartment complex housing Russian émigrés. Her family, mother Marina, step-father Vadim, brother Anton and little sister Alissa moved here when Sacha was quite young. The Emerald is pretty seedy but not nearly as bad as the place they came from in Russia.
  The story of her mother Marina’s and Marina’s boyfriends’ murder by Anton is gradually revealed. Now Sacha‘s goal in life is to kill Vadim and write a book about her mother.
  After the murder, Vadim is in prison and his cousin Maria has come to care for the children. Sacha describes her as a dowdy and dumb woman whose only talent is cooking (and loving the kids).
  Sacha says of herself “I’d be easygoing, fearless, and nonchalant” – “Okay, I’m like that now, too. But then I’d be confident too.” Sacha is anything but easygoing. She is caustic and cheeky and oh yes, confident. She sees herself as the one really caring for her family even when her mother was alive. She says that she would dress “prudish” because her mother was blind to the threat Vadim was to her.
  Anton is so beaten down he barely speaks so Sacha worries about him being out in the world. Her little sister Alissa is precocious and loud. Almost a mini-me at 3 years old.
  We meet some of the other odd neighbors who shun the family because of the murder. They will bring bad luck.
  When an article about Vadim appears in the newspaper portraying him as a remorseful guy, she goes to the paper’s office to vent her displeasure. She meets the editor, a 40ish guy and develops a crush. (This is where I remind myself that she is just 17 years old and no matter how “mature” and smart, she is not necessarily emotionally advanced.) She makes some very questionable sexual decisions. I saw it as her acting out her anger at being put into the position of being the “responsible adult” in everyone’s eyes.
  The ending seemed anti-climactic but honestly, I couldn’t put the book down.
  Some of the dialogue had me chuckling out loud (Tom giving me sideways looks but I can’t see him relating if I tried to explain.)
  I thought there were similarities in Sacha to Rosa, the main character in Bronsky’s
  The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine.
  The setting was interesting in how immigrants end up living in their own community in their new country.
  I think at some point I will give another Bronsky book a try.
• 
  Simon

  Ich habe mich nie gefragt, wie sie meinen Plan finden wird. Habe mir nie Gedanken darüber gemacht. Wahrscheinlich möchte ich einfach glauben, dass sie seufzend, aber ohne Widerrede mithilft, die Sauerei wieder wegzumachen, bevor die Kinder kommen. Sie wird verstehen, dass noch mehr Blut für ihre Entwicklung nicht förderlich ist.

  
  
  Alexandra Naimann, genannt Sascha, hat zwei Träume: Sie will Vadim umbringen. Und sie will ein Buch über ihre Mutter schreiben. Es soll heißen: "Die Geschichte einer hirnlosen rothaarigen Frau, die noch leben würde, wenn sie auf ihre kluge älteste Tochter gehört hätte". Sascha lebt mit ihren Geschwistern und einer Verwandten ihres Stiefvaters im "Solitär", dem "Russenghetto". Mit der Verwandten, weil besagter Stiefvater Vadim ihre Mutter und deren Freund ermordet hat. Es folgen Liebe und Hass.
  
  Ich möchte dieses Buch wirklich gut finden. Weil ich mehr davon will. Ich liebe diese Hauptfigur Sascha; sie ist tatsächlich wie Scherben, kalt, schmerzhaft und kaputt. Wenn sie spricht, sind die trockenen Sprüche voll stählernem Zynismus und zugleich so witzig, dass ich immer wieder lachen musste. Aber die Geschichte ist schwach, es ist nur eine Anhäufung von Vorkommnissen. Richtig entwickelt würden sie für ein halbes dutzend Bücher dieser Dicke reichen. Vor allem aber sind die Charaktere so wenig herausgearbeitet, dass ihre Gefühlswelt zum Schattenspiel verkommt; bloß schwarz-weiße Schablonen - und nie wird hinter die Leinwand geschaut. Gerade Saschas Regungen fehlt leider jegliche Tiefe. Dazu kommt, dass der Plot eine Müllhalde aus den Schreckensmeldungen des Boulevards über die Unterschicht ist; Saschas "Solitär" ist eine verquere Mischung aus Sidos "Block" und Rütli-Schule, in der die hochintelligente Heroine den bildungsbürgernden Leser herumführt.
  
  Noch einmal: Ich liebe diese Figur Sascha mit ihrer Härte, ihrem Zynismus, ihrem Wahn. Aber alles darum herum, die Geschichte, die Szenerie, ist derart trivial, so klischeebeladen, so schwach trotz aller Härtefälle, dass man diesen Roman, wie fesselnd er beim ersten Mal auch ist, wohl kaum zweimal lesen kann.
• 
  Victor

  Alina Bronskys Debütroman ist ein Buch über die Wut. Wahrscheinlich ist Adoleszenz das schwierigste Lebensalter für jede Person, aber nicht alle sind russische Mädchen deren Mutter von ihrem Stiefvater ermordet war. 17-Jährige Sascha lebt voll Wut, Schmerz und Hass. Sie muss sich um ihre zwei kleinen Geschwister bemühen, und auch über ihre Tante, die, theoretisch, über die Kinder bemühen musste, aber hilflos wirkt. Saschas kleiner Halbbruder spricht kaum, weil sein Vater Vadim seine Mutter vor seinen Augen umgebracht hat.
  
  Sascha hat zwei Ziele: Vadim zu töten und ein Buch über ihre Mutter zu schreiben. Sie ist begabt und sie findet ihre Mitschüler in ihrem privaten, katholischen Gymnasium, wo sie wegen ihre Klugheit geraten ist, viel dummer als sie selbst. Die Erwachsenen sind nicht nur dumm, sie sind fies und brutal. Sascha wird den Journalisten, die über die Tragödie ihrer Familie Blödsinn schreiben, eine Tracht Prügel herabreichen!
  
  Diese überforderte große Schwester muss sich mit Armut, dummen russischen Schläger und dummen deutschen Neonazis befassen. Scherbenpark ist der Name des Russengettos, wo sie wohnt. Ihre Streitsucht ist nichts mehr als Schutzreaktion. Aber ihr Schmerz ist wahrhaft und tief.
  
  Was ich in diesem Buch nicht möge, sind die Klischees über die Russen. Gibt es wirklich keine andere Themen als Gewalt und Wodka um an einem Buch über eine russische Mädchen Interesse zu erwecken? Es sieht aus, als ob die Autorin für die Galerie spielte.
  
  Es ermüdete mich auch ein Bisschen im Laufe des Buchs in dem Kopf eines Teenagers zu wohnen. Saschas Leben ist anstrengend, aber ihre Selbstgerechtigkeit ist noch anstrengender, zumindest für mich. Trauma ist trendig, aber deren Anwendung in diesem Roman scheint viel zu viel gradlinig. Die ganze Situation sieht als Überdosierung von Schwarzmalerei aus.
  
  Aus meiner Sicht fehlt es dem Buch an Reife. Oder ich bin zu alt, solche Romane zu genießen.
• 
  Buried In Print

  This review was deleted following Amazon's purchase of GoodReads.
  
  The review can still be viewed via LibraryThing, where my profile can be found
  here.
  
  I'm also in the process of building a database at Booklikes, where I can be found
  here.
  
  If you read/liked/clicked through to see this review here on GR, many thanks.
• 
  Oriana

  Hell yes.
• 
  Saleh MoonWalker

  Onvan : Broken Glass Park - Nevisande : Alina Bronsky - ISBN : 1933372966 - ISBN13 : 9781933372969 - Dar 366 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2008
• 
  Irsenica

  Sascha (Alexandra), Tochter einer russischen Einwandererfamile, musste miterleben wie ihr Vater, die Mutter und Ihren Freund getötet hat. Mit 17 ist sie immer noch traumatisiert und voller Wut. Sie lebt derzeit zusammen mit ihren beiden Geschwistern und ihrer Pflegemutter in einer verkommenen Hochhaussiedlung.
  
  Ihre Zukunftspläne : Den Vater töten und ein Buch über ihre Mutter schreiben.
  
  Anfangs hat Sascha noch mein Mitgefühl, doch das schwindet schnell im Laufe des Buches. Ihr aggressives, zickiges, launenhaftes und selbstgerechtes Wesen macht es einen doch sehr sehr schwer.
  
  Ich mag Alina Bronsky's Bücher und ihren Schreibstil, insbesondere als Hörbuch, wenn Sophie Rois vorträgt. Bei "Scherbenpark" liest diesmal Katharina Schüttler. An ihr lag es aber nicht , das ich mit diesen Werk nicht so richtig warm wurde. Das Buch wirkt lückenhaft und nicht so richtig "rund". Für ein Erstlingswerk ist aber OK.
  
  Mein Mitgefühl reicht diesmal nur für 3 *
• 
  Foks

  rasanter, brutaler & guter Debütroman
• 
  Beth

  This revenge novel opens with a Russian girl who wants to murder her step-father, who killed her mother and her mother's boyfriend two years ago. Many details of European life for a Russian immigrant living in Germany are translatable to an American audience, and this becomes a fast paced coming of age story.
  
  One of the things I really liked about Broken Glass Park was the voice
  of 17 year old Sascha, who is tough and vulnerable and funny and
  passionate and insightful and moody, within short time frames. The
  story is engaging, and I found the book easy to read in one sitting,
  perhaps because there are no chapter breaks. I wasn't wowed by the
  structure and I sometimes found the stream of consciousness style
  unfocused. There was a lot of information delivered the first 20 pages
  or so and at times the narrative felt overwhelming - too much going
  on, too many characters introduced, characters dropped in favor of
  advancing other characters - BUT this style felt right for the book.
  Sascha has had a lot of turmoil and upheaval in her life.
• 
  Patrick O'Neil

  Alina Bronsky's stunning debut novel, Broken Glass Park, is a total first person narrative. The reader hears 17-year old Sascha's voice as she plots murder, dissects relationships, threatens thugs, has sex, and describes her neighborhood's squalor and the drudgery of her life. It's all tell, no show, and surprisingly it works. Yet Sascha's not playing the sympathy card, and her mother was murdered, in front of her, by her stepfather, the man she wants to kill, the scumbag loser she told her mother to leave, but her mother wouldn't listen. It’s a grim tale and after you're done you'll never believe in innocence again – at least not now in the world as we know it.
  
  Bronsky writes at breakneck speed, like she's possessed and has to get the whole story down on paper before somehow it gets away. There's an urgency that's contagious. And although the plot is very dark, there's beauty in the sadness, and there's a method to the sense of futility. And it all comes out of the mouth of a 17-year old Russian girl in a decrepit Berlin tenement with bloodstains on the floor.
  
• 
  Lisa Hayden Espenschade

  Broken Glass Park has many of the elements I love to find in fiction: believably unbelievable characters, vivid settings, and situations that feel real and relevant. Perhaps it was Bronsky's success in creating settings and people that made her narrative feel weak: I felt the book lacked structure. Though Bronsky packs in lots of events and interesting scenes, I came away feeling I'd read a portrait rather than a novel with a beginning and an end. That's not always a bad thing, I suppose, but I found the book a little disappointing because I thought more shape would have made it a very, very good (and absolutely devastating) book rather than just a good and memorable book.
  
  (Europa Editions was kind enough to provide me with a signed copy of Broken Glass Park at Book Expo America.)
  
  (I wrote about the book on my blog
  here.)
• 
  Daria

  Ho letto questo libro in inglese.
  
  
  
  Sasha, voce narrante del romanzo, ha 17 anni e un obiettivo: vendicarsi di Vadim, il patrigno che ha ucciso sua madre quando lei l’ha lasciato. C’è un solo problema: Vadim è in prigione e non ne uscirà molto presto, e Sasha, che prima di ammazzare il patrigno deve ammazzare il tempo fino alla sua scarcerazione, nel frattempo salta la scuola, si lascia coinvolgere in strani triangoli con un uomo maturo e suo figlio, aiuta una vicina di casa a studiare per gli esami, insomma cerca in qualche modo di fare passare l’estate.
  
  Completamente priva di empatia o compassione, di pietà, di dubbi o di remore di qualsiasi tipo, fermamente convinta di essere l’unica sulla faccia della terra ad avere mai subito un torto, sicura che tutti quelli che conosce siano più stupidi o indifesi di lei, Sasha tratta con sufficienza o crudeltà chiunque le stia intorno. Le sue azioni, soprattutto il modo in cui gestisce le relazioni con l’altro sesso, la sua vera e propria ossessione, sfidano ogni logica umana. Sono così frustranti che spesso mi hanno portata al punto di voler lanciare il libro contro un muro durante la lettura.
  
  Pur non essendo un personaggio amabile, Sasha rimane tuttavia interamente credibile come adolescente nel suo egocentrismo. La sua realtà è stralunata, a volte dissociata: prima per la sua doppia identità di giovane immigrata, poi, per il trauma vissuto proprio nel passaggio tra l’infanzia e l’età adulta.
  
  
  
  Non sappiamo, perché il libro non ne dà alcun indizio, che tipo di persona sia la Sasha di prima della carneficina avvenuta davanti ai suoi occhi, perché tutto quello che succede nel romanzo è vissuto dal lettore attraverso la lente distorta della sua rabbia e della sua inquietudine. Si fa accenno continuo agli spazi interni, soprattutto alle porte, alle pareti, a tutto quello che delimita le varie stanze, e ogni passaggio da uno spazio all’altro, ogni porta, introduce una nuova emozione, un’interazione diversa con uno dei tanti personaggi che popolano le pagine e gli appartamenti sovraffollati del quartiere dormitorio che è a sua volta un vero e proprio personaggio. C’è un senso di frammentarietà e di claustrofobia, ma questi continui riferimenti agli spazi rendono anche la lettura un’esperienza estremamente realistica: forse perché questo tipo di case, di quartieri-ghetto, mi sono famigliari, leggendo ho immaginato nei minimi dettagli ogni ambiente, rumore o odore descritto, e grazie a questo sono stata interamente assorbita.
  
  
  Fonte: vk.com, le altre immagini sono mie
  
  Broken Glass Park, già dalla sua copertina, prospetta vagonate di rabbia adolescenziale, violenza, famiglie distrutte, integrazione difficile, di speranza, desiderio di riscatto e di sogni di evasione. E anche senza essere un capolavoro della letteratura mondiale, adempie alla perfezione a queste promesse.
• 
  Vishy

  I read Alina Bronsky's 'My Grandmother's Braid' recently, and liked it very much. So I decided to read her first book 'Broken Glass Park'.
  
  Sascha Naimann lives with her mom and her younger brother and sister. One day a tragedy happens in her family. Sascha decides to avenge this and kill the perpetrator. What happens after that forms the rest of the story. This is the vaguest of the vague description of the story. You need to read the book to find out more. Don't want to spoil your reading pleasure by telling you more 😊
  
  There is good news and bad news. First, the good news. Sascha is a irreverent, fascinating character. She is also the narrator of the story and she doesn't mince any words, and she calls a spade a spade. It is very interesting to see the world through her eyes. Alina Bronsky's writing is sharp and cuts like a knife. It is also filled with style and humour. It is a pleasure to read. The pages just fly. I read most of the book today, and I didn't know how the pages flew by! One of my favourite passages comes in the beginning of the book and it goes like this –
  
  "My name is Sascha Naimann. I’m not a guy, even though everyone in this country seems to think so when they hear my name. I’ve given up counting how often I’ve had to explain it to people. Sascha is a short form of Alexander and Alexandra. I’m an Alexandra. But my name is Sascha—that’s what my mother always called me, and that’s what I want to be called. When people address me as Alexandra, I don’t even react. That used to happen a lot more when I was new in school. These days it only happens when there’s a new teacher."
  
  I loved the first part of the book, in which Sascha describes the people in her life and what happened and what she plans to do about it. There is a character called Maria who helps out Sascha and her family, who is fascinating.
  
  Now, the bad news. In the second part of the book, Sascha packs her backpack, leaves her home, and goes on a Holden Caulfield kind of adventure, meeting unknown people and sometimes doing crazy stuff. Some parts of this were interesting, but I didn't like this as much as the first part. I wanted to know more about how Sascha was plotting her revenge and whether she was able to pull it off. This sidetrack into a totally different story felt like a distracting digression. However, if we look at the story as a coming-of-age story, instead of as a revenge story, it looks much better. So probably I was underwhelmed by the second part because of my own expectation.
  
  Inspite of all this, I enjoyed reading 'Broken Glass Park'. Mostly because of Alina Bronsky's writing. I have to say though that I loved 'My Grandmother's Braid' more.
  
  Have you read 'Broken Glass Park' or other books by Alina Bronsky?
• 
  Jaci

  Sascha Naimann is a 17 yr. old Russian German orphan, living with her younger brother and sister in a housing project in Berlin. Besides being an immigrant story, it's also the story of trauma and whether children ever leave violence behind. The characters are beautifully drawn, the language compelling, humor dry, and it was a great read.
  
  p. 12: "And by the way, when you too much, you get old and wrinkled faster." That's a Russian saying.
• 
  Labyrinth

  Sascha agiert instinktiv, wahnsinnig und gewalttätig. Ihre Taten werden aneinandergereiht und dann wieder komplett vergessen. Es gibt weder irgendwelchen Reaktionen und schon gar keine Konsequenzen.