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The Glass Mountain
The Glass Mountain
Dec 6, 2025 3:18 AM

Author:Donald Barthelme

The Glass Mountain

A glass mountain sits in the middle of a city and at the top sits a 'beautiful, enchanted symbol'. Seeking to disenchant it, the narrator must climb the mountain. Confronted by the jeers of acquaintances, the bodies of previous climbers and the claws of a guarding eagle he, slowly, begins to ascend. In true postmodernist form, subject and purpose collide as Donald Barthelme uses one-hundred fragmented statements to destabilise a symbol of his own - literature's conventional forms and practices. With a quest, a princess and an array of knights, Barthelme subverts that most traditional of genres, the fairy-tale; irony, absurdity, and playful self-reflexivity are the champions of this short story.

Reviews

Iris Murdoch was one of the best and most influential writers of the twentieth century...she kept the traditional novel alive, and in doing so changed what it is capable of

—— Guardian

The Time of the Angels is certainly her best; wittier, more lyrical, more deeply felt than ever before. She is an enchantress

—— Sunday Times

I can think of few other novelists who could have written so superbly and so surely of the good and evil that encompasses us all

—— Daily Telegraph

Mayhew can definitely write… with a richness and intelligence, and never a sense of showing-off... [A Wolf in Hindelheim has] a wide-reaching subject matter pinned down to a strong plot; and in every short chapter a sign that this is an author to watch.

—— The Bookbag

It’s a treat to read such a satisfying, complex work

—— Financial Times

As with Haig’s other crossover novels The Radleys and The Humans, this combines a cracking plot with profound philosophical questions about what it is to be human. Fearless and beautifully written, it confirms Haig as one of our best new writers of speculative fiction

—— Amanda Craig , New Statesman

Matt Haig uses words like a tin-opener. We are the tin

—— Jeanette Winterson

Haig brings to life a terrifying and claustrophobic dystopian future. The future we are shown in Echo Boy is dark and disturbing, but there is hope. Hope that whatever terrors await, you can't put out "the irrepressible light" inside a person

—— Telegraph

Poignant and thought-provoking

—— The Bookseller

Will appeal as much to adults as teenagers . . . Enough action, adventure and tension with a slight dusting of romance to keep anyone enthralled . . . Matt Haig has penned a number of hugely popular adult and young children's novels and if Echo Boy is anything to go by, he's on the way to steal the YA market too . . . It's his unique depth of writing that makes Matt Haig's work such compelling reading

—— Starburst

Matt Haig's first young adult novel is a thrilling science-fiction roller-coaster ride. The combination of romance and dystopia may be a familiar concept for young adult fiction, but Haig gives it his own distinctive spin, bringing freshness and a huge amount of imagination to this well-trodden territory . . . Echo Boy will keep young readers on the edge of their seats - but will also leave them with questions and philosophical problems to ponder

—— Booktrust

A fun read with an intriguing setting

—— SFX

An infinitely rewarding novel . . . The futuristic world is imagined in such detail it begins to live before one’s eyes

—— Literature Works

YA sci-fi fans will love this one . . . Definitely a book I’m going to be recommending

—— Feeling Fictional

This is strong, relentless stuff. Matt Haig's universe is impressively consistent in every detail. We inescapably inhabit this world. The plot is chillingly taut

—— Books for Keeps
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