In a Glass House

Author Nino Ricci
After a harrowing voyage from Italy, during which his mother died, seven-year-old Vittorio arrives in Canada with his newborn half-sister, and is reunited with his estranged father, a dark, isolated, and angry figure he hardly knows. The story that follows spans two decades of Vittorio’s life within an immigrant Italian farming community in Southwestern Ontario, through his university years, and then into Africa where he goes to teach. At the centre of Vittorio’s existence is his strained relationship with his father and with his half-sister, Rita. In a Glass House is a haunting tale about perseverance and longed-for redemption. Ricci juxtaposes the intimate, complex world of family, with “its shadowy intricate web of alliances,” against the dislocations of the immigrant experience. The result is a richly textured and memorable novel.
“The exactitude and delicacy with which the smallest details, the finest nuances, are rendered, demonstrates Ricci’s mastery as a colourist of the human heart.…A dizzying display of virtuosity.…”
Quill & Quire (starred review)

“A haunting, lyrical, intelligent coming-of-age novel…the acuity of its observations, the eloquence of its prose and the hard-earned wisdom of its final pages make it a genuine achievement.”
New York Times

“Ricci’s great gift is to capture, sometimes in exquisite prose, the texture of people and place.…”
Maclean’s

“Brilliant.…There is little doubt that Nino Ricci is one of Canada’s best novelists to appear in a long time.”
The Spectator (U.K.)
© Paul-Antoine Taillefer
NINO RICCI's first novel, Lives of the Saints, won the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the F.G. Bressani Prize and was made into a motion picture starring Sophia Loren. The novel was also a long-time national bestseller, and was followed by the highly acclaimed In a Glass House and Where She Has Gone, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His bestselling novel Testament won the Trillium Book Award. His most recent novel The Origin of Species received the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction.  In total, his novels have appeared on 9 Best Book lists, including The New York Times and England’s Times Literary Supplement. 
 
Nino Ricci has also won the Betty Trask Award for Fiction (UK), The Winnifred Holtby Prize (UK) and the 1992 Prise Contrepoint Madrineaux (France). Nino Ricci was recently named the L.G. Pathy '56 Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at Princeton University and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Windsor as well the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.  He has been recognized with the Order of Canada for his contributions to literature as a renowned author.  He lives in Toronto. View titles by Nino Ricci

About

After a harrowing voyage from Italy, during which his mother died, seven-year-old Vittorio arrives in Canada with his newborn half-sister, and is reunited with his estranged father, a dark, isolated, and angry figure he hardly knows. The story that follows spans two decades of Vittorio’s life within an immigrant Italian farming community in Southwestern Ontario, through his university years, and then into Africa where he goes to teach. At the centre of Vittorio’s existence is his strained relationship with his father and with his half-sister, Rita. In a Glass House is a haunting tale about perseverance and longed-for redemption. Ricci juxtaposes the intimate, complex world of family, with “its shadowy intricate web of alliances,” against the dislocations of the immigrant experience. The result is a richly textured and memorable novel.

Reviews

“The exactitude and delicacy with which the smallest details, the finest nuances, are rendered, demonstrates Ricci’s mastery as a colourist of the human heart.…A dizzying display of virtuosity.…”
Quill & Quire (starred review)

“A haunting, lyrical, intelligent coming-of-age novel…the acuity of its observations, the eloquence of its prose and the hard-earned wisdom of its final pages make it a genuine achievement.”
New York Times

“Ricci’s great gift is to capture, sometimes in exquisite prose, the texture of people and place.…”
Maclean’s

“Brilliant.…There is little doubt that Nino Ricci is one of Canada’s best novelists to appear in a long time.”
The Spectator (U.K.)

Author

© Paul-Antoine Taillefer
NINO RICCI's first novel, Lives of the Saints, won the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the F.G. Bressani Prize and was made into a motion picture starring Sophia Loren. The novel was also a long-time national bestseller, and was followed by the highly acclaimed In a Glass House and Where She Has Gone, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His bestselling novel Testament won the Trillium Book Award. His most recent novel The Origin of Species received the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction.  In total, his novels have appeared on 9 Best Book lists, including The New York Times and England’s Times Literary Supplement. 
 
Nino Ricci has also won the Betty Trask Award for Fiction (UK), The Winnifred Holtby Prize (UK) and the 1992 Prise Contrepoint Madrineaux (France). Nino Ricci was recently named the L.G. Pathy '56 Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at Princeton University and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Windsor as well the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.  He has been recognized with the Order of Canada for his contributions to literature as a renowned author.  He lives in Toronto. View titles by Nino Ricci