NON-FICTION

House of Glass ★★★★★

Guardian journalist Hadley Freeman first holds up to the light her Polish/ French (and reluctant American) grandmother, Sala Glass. Cultural identity, the Second World War and lethal anti-Semitism are all embraced. Hadley’s portal is a shoebox of memories found in her gran’s wardrobe, and from this she pulls her characters, notably Sala and her flamboyant brother Alex, unlikely couture king of Paris, and Sala’s American-Jewish husband Bill, forever more in love with his French wife than she with him.