Synopsis
Olivia Harker grew up in Depression-era Kentucky. Ignored by her own mother, her black neighbours became her friends and playmates; their parents her guardian angels. Now, she runs a ramshackle grocery store with her beloved grandson and her difficult widowed mother. But Olivia has no idea of the long shadow cast by events of her childhood. When she finally becomes party to a decades-old mystery, she must get to grips with past betrayals before fighting to save her family, her community and her life.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Quercus Publishing
- ISBN: 9781849161626
- Number of pages: 320
- Dimensions: 197 x 130 x 24 mm
- Weight: 230g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
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Sweeping Up Glass
Forty-two-year-old Olivia Harker lives with her grandson in Kentucky in the poor years of the 1930s and just about manages to keep her shop from going unde... READ MORE
Superb storytelling
Sweeping up Glass was a revelation – not at all what I expected.Wall’s storytelling is superb and in Olivia Harker she creates a strong compelling characte... READ MORE
A slow beginning.
Carolyn Wall sets her novel in Kentucky, America in the 1930s. The central character,Olivia Harker lives with her grandson and the mother who never wanted ... READ MORE
Depression-era drama
Switching between child and adult, Sweeping Up Glass is the tale of Olivia Harker, a white girl brought up in a poor, predominantly black, neighbourhood in... READ MORE
A wonderful novel!
What a rotten hand life has played Olivia! Her mother had spent much of Olivia’s early life in a mental asylum, and she had spent her first years happily p... READ MORE
Sweeping Up Glass
This is a splendid novel that I found difficult to put down - it reads quickly, the action is relentless and the writing clear.
The book is set in rural A... READ MORE
Wow, what a fantastic book!
This is an extraordinarily powerful book. The storyline is so compelling I literally could not put it down. The reader is drawn into the terribly hard life... READ MORE
Some fine writing, but....
There's some really fine writing in this Southern US gothic mystery/thriller. The central character, Olivia Harker, is a strong and impressive narrator, an... READ MORE
A good read
To be totally honest, I found the beginning of this book slow going but I'm glad I persevered because before long I couldn't put it down! The great strengt... READ MORE