Broken Glass Park Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of Broken Glass Park.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

About the Book

Sascha Naimann was born in Moscow, but now lives in Berlin with her two younger siblings and, until recently, her mother. She is precocious, independent, street-wise, and, since her stepfather murdered her mother several months ago, an orphan. Unlike most of her companions, she doesn't dream of escaping from the tough housing project where they live. Sascha's dreams are different: she longs to write a novel about her beautiful but naïve mother and she wants to end the life of Vadim, the man who brutally murdered her.

Sascha's story is that of a young woman consumed by two competing impulses, one celebrative and redemptive, the other murderous. In a voice that is candid and self-confident, at times childlike and at others all too mature, Sascha relates the struggle between those forces that can destroy us, and those that lead us out of sorrow and pain back to life.

1. "I thought I was already old…"
   Sascha is as if torn between adulthood and what remains of her childhood. Caught in a moment balanced between youth and maturity, Sascha is perhaps not so different from others her age. While an American seventeen-year-old may be forced to drop out of school and provide for his family, an Israeli teen prepares to sacrifice two years of her life to the army, and in many parts of the world young people are forced to face the horrors of war, the tribulations of social unrest, or the damages wrought by domestic violence, both physical and psychological.
   
   When does a child become an adult? And does this passage from childhood and adulthood occur more or less at the same age despite one's circumstances? Can Broken Glass Park be described as a coming-of-age novel? Can childhood survive difficult and damaging experiences, or do these necessarily make of one an adult? Does preserving a child's innocence necessarily mean shielding him or her from life's dark side? What are the effects of a childhood cut short?
   
   
   
2. Her mistress's voice.
   Much of the success of Broken Glass Park has been attributed to the first person narrator's intoxicating and compelling voice. What makes this voice so distinctive and appealing? Are we witness to an act of literary ventriloquism or do you think that main character's voice probably is that of the author herself?
   
   
   
3. Family…they'll %&§£ you up!
   How accurate a picture of family life, albeit it a tragic one, is Bronsky's Broken Glass Park? Sascha loves her mother deeply, but is also furious with her for what she sees as her mother's stupidity. Has Sascha made peace with the ghost of her mother by the end of the novel?
   
   
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Europa Editions. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.