Girl with Glass Feet

by Ali Shaw

Book Overview

WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE

Strange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda's Land. Magical winged creatures flit around the icy bogland, albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods, and Ida Maclaird is slowly turning into glass. Ida is an outsider in these parts who has only visited the islands once before. Yet during that one fateful visit the glass transformation began to take hold,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312680457
• ISBN13: 9780312680459
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

My new favorite piece of fiction!

I was not prepared to be swept away by this book...but it grabbed me from the first page, and I could not put it down until the end! It is refreshing, unexpected and unusual. The descriptive passages are quite wonderful, and I found myself reading some of them over and over again.

Love story, Fable, Love lost,

How did Ida come to have glass feet? We only know that she does, and also other charactes develope we learn as the story progresses. One is lead to think that only some "catch/have this condition? The condition that grows to over take the body, turning flesh into glass. Ida comes to the isolated island looking for a man she meet on an earlier visit. He's a character in his self. Who she thinks just might be able to help her to contain the glass take-over. The middle of the story connects most of the characters to each other, Love losts, entire famlies connected through work,fathers and daughters, wife to one longing for another. Life, a touching tale that un winds, disclosing why people died, The story is so entangled, one must read this book for one self, it is delightful. The unique island holds many mysteries, full of fairy tale characters. Tiny flying bulls, kept alive and ,loved by a human, a small animals that one look can turn thr surroundings entirely white, and ofcourse the glass people. Glass people have surfaced lately, as I recall a little glass man that aids a writter in "Inkheart". This story is full of heart warming people, daily life with feelings of love, tragic feelings regarding family. I found that nearing the end of the story, I wanted to keep changing words so that it would end differently, any cure, as Ida did look into another who had treatments from a women who lead s Ida for hope of containing her feet and later upper body. The ending is a tragic end, the only good that comes is that growth has been left to most. I would recomment this book, as I found it very well written, and look forward to other stories from this first time author.

A Haunting Vision

St. Hauda's Land is a remote archipelago somewhere in the North, a land of dark visions and strange secrets. Ida McLaird is a young girl whose feet are slowly turning into glass. Midas Crook is a young man with few social skills who hides his insecurities behind a camera. Ida and Midas entertain a painful, awkard courtship, as Midas struggles with his fear of intimacy, and Ida progressively turns to glass. Such is the plot in a nutshell but it tells little of the book's haunting magic, odd characters, mythic creatures, and painful stories. It's a visual book, with stunning descriptions of a dreary wasteland, stunted lives, doomed loves, and painful memories. Author Shaw does a brilliant job, making this strange world totally believable, and his odd, lonely characters somehow engaging. The writing is lyrical, simply exquisite. In telling this somber fairy tale he's talking about us as well--our struggles with intimacy, our encounters with failure and mortality. I loved this book and I recommend it highly. Go out and get it as soon as it's available. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

The Girl with Glass Feet

Plot Summary: St. Hauda's is a cold island way up north where narwhal fishing used to be the trade of choice. Once that was banned, most of the population left and the island is now dull, quiet and secluded. This is perfectly fine with Midas Crook, who doesn't like being around too many people and certainly doesn't like touching them. He prefers, instead, to view the world through his camera and make sense of it that way. Ida MacLaird comes to St. Hauda's Land hoping for a cure to her strange illness. Her feet have turned to glass and the illness seems to be spreading up her body. She comes to St. Hauda's looking for Henry Fuwe, a man she met on her last trip there who told her about tiny flying cows, an animal that turns everything it looks at to white, and glass people sunk into bogs. She meets Midas instead, and the two become friends, deepening into something more. The two embark on a mission to save Ida, aided in part by Carl Maulson, who used to be in love with Ida's mother and work with Midas' father. But even as they try to find a cure, the glass in Ida's body keeps creeping up... My Thoughts: This was a beautifully written book. There were so many interlocking stories, all about relationships and love lost and found. Ida and Midas are in the center (I wonder if their names are similar for a reason). Ida wants desperately to connect with someone before her illness leaves her cold, literally. Midas is drawn to Ida, but he must overcome his innate dislike of touching or even really interacting with other people. Their relationship is central to the plot, but there are so many others similar to it that reach different conclusions. Each relationship presented in the story represents and symbolizes a different version of love, and it's fascinating to see how Shaw weaves the illness of bodies turning to glass into all of it. I really enjoyed both Ida and Midas as characters. Ida was so strong and faced her problems head-on. Even though she has a seemingly incurable illness, she goes after what she wants and refuses to cater to anyone else. Midas, too, grows so much during the novel, from a shy, socially awkward person always frightened that he will turn out like his father, into a man who stands up for himself and takes risks even when they terrify him. This book reminded me, atmosphere-wise, of A Winter's Tale. Everything is black and white and cold. It had the same fantastical elements present- they are alluded to, but never really explained. I would have preferred a bit more closure around the more minor plot points, but I can see why Shaw left them out. I wish he had also left out just a few instances of characters saying the word, "Um," but I will forgive him that :-) The Girl with Glass Feet is a slow, sad novel that meanders around an isolated island. I think you have to be in the right mood for it- I read it curled up inside on a miserable rainy day, and that was the perfect setting. Shaw has a gift for descriptive passages, and h