The author of the novel The Glass Room fascinates pre-war Czechoslovakia

London - The heroes of his novel are a functionalist villa, its inhabitants, and pre-war Czechoslovakia as an oasis of liberal democracy in Central Europe. According to British reviewers, his book The Glass Room, nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, could spark interest in Czech culture in Britain. However, Simon Mawer wishes it could help resolve the disputes surrounding the restoration of the Tugendhat villa in Brno, which inspired him to write the novel.
    The Glass Room describes the fates of Liesel and Viktor Landauer, for whom the famous architect constructs a modern villa with a huge glass room in a fictional city. The villa will enter the textbooks of architecture, but the Landauers flee the country at the beginning of World War II, while the house is taken over by the Nazis and after 1948 by the Communists.
    Mawer does not hide that the city in his novel is Brno and the Landauer's house is the Tugendhat villa. A random visit to this villa in the early 1990s inspired him to write the book. Sixty-one-year-old Mawer is educated as a biologist and went to Brno to see the places where the founder of genetics, Gregor Mendel, worked. "It was a kind of tribute to Mendel and the trip inspired me to write a novel about him. So I went to Brno several more times," Mawer said, who then indeed wrote the novel Mendel's Dwarf.
    During one of these visits, he also went to see the Tugendhat villa. "Until then, I didn't know much about it, but on the spot I felt: 'Here is a story,'" he told ČTK.
    The functionalist villa and indeed this entire architectural movement is a symbol of clarity and transparency for him. "It only took ten years, and then the disaster came. I was fascinated - and I am still fascinated - by the contrast of brightness and light of the modernist movement and the darkness that gathered around Czechoslovakia," he stated.
    Today, the famous functionalist villa, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, was built for Grete and Fritz Tugendhat. It was designed in 1928 by the renowned German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
    "But I am a novelist, so apart from the house, I made everything up, including the fates of the Landauer family," Mawer told ČTK. He admits only general similarities. "Viktor Landauer is a Jew, the Tugendhats were both Jews. The Landauers built their house at the same time and left the country at the same time and for the same reasons as the Tugendhats. But there is otherwise no connection between them," he emphasized.
    Mawer is fascinated that the First Republic was the only liberal democracy in Central Europe. "That's already fantastic. Given how small of a country it was... its liberal ideas, that is exceptional. It lasted only twenty years. It is very touching," he said.
    In one of the key scenes in The Glass Room, the Landauers listen to Neville Chamberlain's speech on the BBC's foreign broadcast during the Munich crisis about "a conflict in a distant country between people of whom we know nothing," and they definitively decide to emigrate. "I wanted to offer a perspective from Central Europe," Mawer said.
    The book is peppered with German and especially Czech words. Mawer wanted to bring the atmosphere of a multilingual country closer to the British reader, who usually does not know foreign languages. "In the thirties, it was important which language you spoke in this area," he added. "And when you start dealing with the language, you discover joys, such as the Czech word 'pokoj'. When I found in the dictionary that it can mean both 'room' and 'peace', it was completely magical."
    The novel ends with an epilogue in 1990. "I felt that it was a natural ending. The house became a museum, and thus life left it. It is still a beautiful building, but it is not a home. Although there is still something in it that evokes the past," said Mawer.
    According to him, an author usually thinks that their last book is their favorite. "But this book is especially close to my heart because I really love the Czech Republic," he said. "I don't know why. I have no connection to it, yet we clicked from my first visit. And The Glass Room is largely an expression of this feeling," he said.
    He has been living in Italy for 30 years, where he teaches at a high school. He considers himself a European, and one of the reasons for writing the book was also the desire to open up "European perspectives" to British readers. "I feel like a European, and I think that reflects in my writing, especially in The Glass Room... Britain is a much less European country than the continent. I know that, and I don't like it. I would like to see greater openness, and that was one of the reasons I wrote about Central Europe," he said.
   "In Britain, everyone knows Prague. People go there to party because it's cheap. That's very depressing," he added. The same opinion is shared by a reviewer from The Independent, who believes that "with a bit of luck, Mawer's novel could also provoke a deeper interest in the culture and nation it celebrates."
    Mawer would be pleased if the success of his novel could contribute to resolving the disputes between the Tugendhat family and Brno regarding the reconstruction of the villa. "I would really like that. I don't know how, but maybe the popularization of the villa outside the limited local world could have some influence and contribute to resolving the situation," he said. "The villa seriously needs restoration, and it has to be done properly."
    He believes that filming the novel, which is reportedly being considered, could also help. "Nothing is final yet, but I think it could be a very good film. And you already have the location," he added with a smile.
    Now, however, Mawer is awaiting the announcement of the winner of the Man Booker Prize on October 6, which carries prestige, £50,000 (about 1.5 million crowns), and commercial success. "It's really a huge difference. Just the day after the shortlist was announced, sales on Amazon jumped from 3,000 to 60,000 copies," he said.
   "I'm not nervous yet, but I definitely will be," Mawer said. "On the other hand, I'm not sure. Maybe it's better not to win; it's really a big deal."
    The Glass Room is his eighth novel and will also be published in the Czech Republic at the end of September. His novel Judas's Gospel was also published in Czech, and his novel Mendel's Dwarf is set for release.