
The next book to be featured on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club is The Glass Girl, the powerful new novel from bestselling author and TikTok sensation Kathleen Glasgow. The book was released on 1 October and Kathleen’s interview with Sara is on BBC Sounds from Tuesday 5 November.
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We have an exclusive extract available for you to read.
The Glass Girl
Bella is at breaking point. Everyone in her life needs something from her, and there’s only one thing that dulls the pain.
Alcohol smooths the sharp edges and makes it all so much easier. When Bella drinks, she doesn’t feel heartbroken over her ex. Or caught in the middle of her parents’ divorce. Or overcome with grief for her grandmother.
But one night changes everything. When she awakes in hospital with no memory of what happened, it’s time to face reality. And for Bella, that means rehab and the bumpy road to recovery.
About the author
Kathleen Glasgow is the author of the internationally bestselling novels Girl in Pieces, How to Make Friends with the Dark, and You’d Be Home Now. She is also the co-author of the New York Times bestselling teen mysteries The Agathas and The Night in Question. Kathleen lives and writes in Tuscon, Arizona.
A word from Kathleen
“I cannot adequately express how excited I am that The Glass Girl has been chosen for the Radio 2 Book Club. If I could put a thousand crying emojis here, I would! The Glass Girl is about fifteen-year-old Bella, who’s been self-medicating with alcohol as she struggles with her severe anxiety, her parents bitter divorce, the death of her grandmother, her friend group, and her first romantic breakup. One night after a party, Bella is dumped on her mother’s doorstep and winds up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. After that, it’s off to rehab, where Bella will need to confront her addiction and the underlying reasons for her drinking. I’m thrilled that readers in the UK can discover Bella’s story and I hope they love it.
Libraries hold a very special place for me. My mother took me to the library several times a week when I was growing up and let me read whatever I wanted. Later, when I would skip high school, guess where I went? I went to a public library and spent hours reading and then took the bus home. I’ve always found comfort surrounded by lots of books and lots of people just like me, sitting and reading and finding comfort and surprise and hope and possibility in so many books. When I first started writing Girl in Pieces, I wrote in the Hamline University library in Saint Paul, Minnesota on weekends, safely ensconced in my carrel with my coffee and notebook and laptop. When I got stuck on a passage, I got up and wandered the aisles and just…picked up random books and paged through them. Is there anything better than having everything at your fingertips? NO.
I wrote most of How to Make Friends With the Dark in Himmel Park Library in Tucson, Arizona. The book’s subject is grief and also foster care, and I used the resources there to fine tune those aspects of the novel. Simply put, libraries are doors that open into other worlds, whether they be through reading, writing, finding a job, improving your life, or finding community. A library doesn’t just mean books; it means discovering the possibilities of life and that’s a beautiful thing.
Thank you so much, Radio 2 Book Club and The Reading Agency, for bringing books, readers, and possibility together."
Get involved
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