The hardest books for me to describe and recommend are ones that succeed mostly by creating an atmosphere, a certain feeling in me while I’m reading, that is wonderful and transportive. The Girl with Glass Feet is one of these books.

Ida is, starting at her feet, turning into glass. She has returned to St. Hauda’s Land (the imaginary archipelago where the book takes place) because of a whisper of gossip she heard on vacation there about glass people. Midas is a socially crippled, near-hermit photographer who meets Ida one day in the woods as he is chasing light. He might be able to help her, but his own odd life story keeps getting in his way.

This book has the feeling of fairy tale, but there aren’t any fairies in it (a couple of strange things in the woods, but no magic). I read it compulsively, not wanting the conclusion to come out of fear for Midas and Ida and their endearing relationship, but also because I didn’t want to leave the place that Shaw has created. It’s a beautiful, compelling, bittersweet escape. ~Lillian