Windows to the Heart – The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan

An outstanding work of historical fiction, set in France following the end of World War II, and centering around Asher, a character inspired by the modernist artist Marc Chagall (1887-1885), who worked in many mediums, but whose stained glass windows are some of his most widely-recognized works.

Asher is a French Jew whose wife and toddler daughter were killed in front of him by the Nazis. He joined the Resistance and became an assassin. When the war ends, he finds himself at loose ends, mourning his family, his home, and lost business as a fine craftsman of custom-made boots. He wanders the French countryside, a devastation of destroyed villages, roads, bridges, farms, cathedrals, and buildings of every other variety. Everyone is starving, and what we would today call PTSD affects nearly every person. Crime and violence are widespread as the surviving French people try to recover and rebuild.

Eventually he finds his way to the Château Guerin, a stained glass workshop and manor house, run by Brigitte, whose family has operated the business for generations, and her husband Marc, devout Catholics, along with a crew of workers. Asher is famished, and they feed him, then offer him lodging and work. All of the workers have come to the château in a state of despair from their wartime experiences. As he is surrounded by practicing Catholics, the workshop's commissions are replacements for the destroyed windows of churches and cathedrals, and anti-Semitism is widespread, Asher keeps his religion a secret from the others.

Brigette and Marc's other mission is to create a healing experience for the workers, which they do by providing them with food, security, and work. Over time, Asher finds a sense of purpose in his work, learns glassmaking, and is able to nourish his artistic spirit. He also connects, even as he deeply mourns his wife and daughter, with a local woman who supplies the château and village with fruit and vegetables from her vast garden.

Asher becomes more and more of a contributor to the château's work as time passes. Though he lives under the strain of his secret, and continues to grieve, he is still able to heal and grow. This is a beautiful and moving story about the capacity of the human spirit for forgiveness, community, the creation of art, and the enjoyment of beauty, wherever and however it can be found.

More Is More: Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

Part love story, but also a social satire of the ultra-connected, ultra-rich of New York, with a twist: the heroine is half Chinese (via her American-born mother) and half WASP (via her father).

Reminiscent of the super-swanky, over-the-top families portrayed in Crazy Rich Asians and its two sequels, in terms of the clothes, jewels and homes, Sex and Vanity goes deeper and further and skewers WASP and Asian society along with the social climbers who aspire to the top. 

There is a good deal of humor, extensive descriptions of couture and designer clothing, the homes and getaway places of the various characters, but Lucie Tang Churchill, the center of the book, comes off as a real young woman with real aspirations, problems and conflicts.

Kevin Kwan brings together inspirations from the work of Tom Wolfe, as in The Bonfire of the Vanities (on general principles), E.M. Forster's A Room with a View (for aspects of the plot line, and certain character names and personalities: Lucy, Charlotte, George and Cecil), and hints of Henry James's 19th century characters (the WASP Americans might be the modern equivalents of James's European gentry, and the Asians are James's brash Americans). The outrageous details, however, are completely Kwan's own, and he is a master of embedding them into the tale.

The novel can be read for its entertainment value, but is also a great coming-of-age story. There is bound to be an even more stupendously lavish movie adaptation than that of Crazy Rich Asians, and won't that be fun?