The Glass Garden is a Bildungsroman about an orphan, live-proven girl. Although the subject implies the risk of melodrama, the author avoids the trap through a stylistic masterpiece. Taken from the orphanage by a Russian woman, Lastochka is forced by her adoptive mother to pick up empty bottles and wash them, in a yard of miracles in the Chișinău of the 80s.
The story of Lastochka implies several themes: search of identity, construction of feminity and the maternal theme, along with an intense orchestration of sentiments and resentments of both love and hate. In a gripping way the author creates the day-to-day universe, scene after scene, one touch after the other. The girl-woman-mother recalls her childhood, unreal and miraculous as it was, as well as her adult metamorphosis, torn apart by a tragic maternity.
The novel contains an undisputed historical, even political dimension, which touches the themes of Bessarabian-Romanian relationship and the fall of communism. The subtle tension is controlled not only by thematic, but also through challenges both in vocabulary and topics. Elliptic and passionate, Tatiana Țîbuleac´s writing is about the searching for our place in the world.
This project has been funded with support from the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission.