Synopses & Reviews
THOMAS PYNCHON: "An adventure of dreamlike momentum and romantic intensity, brought alive by a storyteller with uncanny access to the Victorians, not only to the closely-woven texture of their days but also to the dangerous nocturnal fires being attended to in their hearts."
JOHN BANVILLE:
"The Glass Ocean is that rarest of things, a historical novel, or at least a novel set in history, that is also a work of art. Lori Baker is a captivating story-teller, and her prose has the flash and fire of molten glass."
"I write in retrospect, from the vantage of a distant shore." Flame-haired, six-foot-two in stocking feet, eighteen-year-old Carlotta Delloro recounts the lives of her parentssolitary glassmaker Leopoldo Delloro and beautiful, unreachable Clotilde Girardand discovers in their loves and losses, their omissions and obsessions, thecircumstances of her abandonment and the weight of her inheritance. Thomas Pynchon calls debut novelist Lori Baker a storyteller with uncanny access to the Victorians, not only to the closely woven texture of their days but also to the dangerous nocturnal fires being attended to in their hearts.”
Carlottas story begins in 1841, when Leo and Clotilde meet aboard the Narcissus, on an expedition led by Clotildes magnanimous, adventuring father. Leo is commissioned to draw the creatures of the deep sea, but is bewitched instead by golden Clotilde, beginning a devotion that will prove inescapable. Clotilde meanwhile sees only her dear papa, but when he goes missing she is pushed to Leo, returning with him to the craggy English shores of Whitby, the place to which Leo vowed he would never return.
There they form an uneasy coexistence, lost to one another. The events of the Narcissus haunt them, leaving Clotilde grieving for her father, while Leo becomes possessed by the work of transforming his sea sketches into glass. But in finding his art he surrenders Clotilde, and the distance between the two is only magnified by the birth of baby Carlotta.
Years have passed, and Carlotta is now grown. A friend from the past comes to Whitby, and with his arrival sets into motion the Delloros inevitable disintegration. In hypnotic, inimitable prose Lori Bakers The Glass Ocean transforms a story of family into something as otherworldly and mesmerizing as life beneath the sea itself.
Chicago Tribune
"Baker is gifted with a surreal, descriptive imagination, and her Victorian world is densely populated with the kind of objects you want to pick up and examine: kaleidoscopes, mechanical birds, glass eyes, hanging orchids. The novel is a cabinet of curiosities stuffed to the gills with fascinating things."
Review
Publishers Weekly (starred): "Baker's unforgettable tale is rich with nuance, buried passions, and Victorian oddities, offering passage into an extraordinary world."
Booklist (starred):
“[A] hauntingly beautiful debut... Gorgeously written and elegantly evocative, Bakers prose brings the Delloros world to life and drives home the tragedy of their fruitless longings.”
Thomas Pynchon:
"An adventure of dreamlike momentum and romantic intensity, brought alive by a storyteller with uncanny access to the Victorians, not only to the closely-woven texture of their days but also to the dangerous nocturnal fires being attended to in their hearts."
Bustle.com:
“Carlotta, the hero of debut novelist Lori Baker's The Glass Ocean, was born to love-lorn seafarers whose story she learns slowly and achingly. As facts surface, the past haunts Carlotta, and with the dream-like atmosphere of the novel, the reader is haunted, too. But the setting and the rich characterization of Carlotta's artist father and beautiful mother propelled me through the pages; Baker has a gift for narrating in detail, and the intensity of the love story kept me sucked in.”
Largehearted Boy:
“An evocative and transporting debut novel, an impressive work of historical fiction.”
John Banville, author of The Sea:
"The Glass Ocean is that rarest of things, a historical novel, or at least a novel set in history, that is also a work of art. Lori Baker is a captivating story-teller, and her prose has the flash and fire of molten glass."
Harry Mathews, author of The Conversions:
"The Glass Ocean is breathtakingly good - as though Jean Rhys had come back from the dead to outdo Wide Sargasso Sea. So completely satisfying (as well as satisfyingly disturbing) that at the end one doesnt wish it would go on forever because the ending itself is so beautifully right. Hat, shirt, and shoes off to a wizard of fiction."
Joanna Scott, author of Arrogance:
“The Glass Ocean is a rare accomplishment, its fictional world so delicately and vividly wrought that the narrative takes on the force of an emergent secret history. It is a haunting, beautiful novel, full of mysteries and illuminations.”
Synopsis
A story of love, art, and obsession in Victorian England from debut novelist Lori Baker
The Glass Ocean is a story of becoming. Flamehaired, six-foot-two in stocking feet, newly orphaned Carlotta Delloro recounts the lives of her parentssolitary glassmaker Leopoldo Delloro and beautiful, unreachable Clotilde Girardand discovers in their loves and losses, their omissions and obsessions, the circumstances of her abandonment and the weight of her inheritance. With a master artisans patience and exquisite craft, debut novelist Lori Baker has created a gemlike Victorian world, a place where mistakes of the past reappear in the future, art can destroy, and family is not to be trusted.
Leopoldo and Clotilde meet in 1841 aboard the Narcissus, on an expedition led by Clotildes magnanimous, adventuring father. Its Leopoldos task to document the animals of the high sea, and by his skilled hand the drawings become the only record of these secretive creatures existence. But what possesses his mind is golden Clotilde, and soon his papers fill with images of her, beginning a devotion that will prove inescapable. Clotilde meanwhile sees only her dear papa, but when he goes missing she is pushed to Leopoldo, returning with him to the craggy English shores of Whitby, the place to which Leopoldo vowed he would never return.
There they form an uneasy coexistence, lost to each other. Clotilde asks only for her papa, and Leopoldo turns to town, where he finds himself in the employ of a local glassblower. There, he begins to conceive his newest project: transforming his sketches into glass, blowing life and light into the darkest creatures. But in finding his art he surrenders Clotilde, and the distance between the two is only confirmed by the birth of baby Carlotta.
Years have passed and Carlotta is now grown. A friend from the past comes to Whitby and with his arrival sets in motion the Delloros inevitable disintegration. Soon Carlotta is left alone to determine the course of her future, though perhaps it is written already. In hypnotic, inimitable prose Lori Bakers The Glass Ocean transforms a story of family into something as otherworldly and mesmerizing as life beneath the sea itself.
About the Author
Lori Baker is the author of three story collections, including Crazy Water: Six Fictions, which won the Mamdouha S. Bobst Literary Award for emerging writers. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.