The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

The setting of this powerful novel is Czechoslovakia in the years prior to (and following) WWII. Next door in Germany, things are brewing, but in the Glass Room, the setting of much of this novel, the world is modern, clear and cool.  The Glass Room is as much a character in this book as the people themselves.  Viktor Landauer, a very wealthy car manufacturer, builds his dream house, using the most modern and respected architect. The house represents the future; it's not fussy and adorned like their old house with tapestries, heavy furniture and brocades. This house is simple, clean, austere.  Viktor does sense that events in neighboring Germany are looming large and will change his world. His wife, Liesel, is less concerned, but she is not Jewish as her husband is. There is so much going on in this novel, politically, intellectually, socially, that it is hard to write a concise summary of the plot.  The characters are interesting, especially Hana, Liesel's best friend, and Stahl, the Nazi who occupies and works in the house during the war. The house in this novel is modeled on the real Villa Tugendhat, in the Czech city of Brno, but the author claims the characters are all fictional. Most of them are so well drawn that they are very real for the reader.
I highly recommend this book. It was one of my favorites of 2010!