Book Review - Broken Glass Park

I have a tendency to read authors that I like over and over, so one of my reading goals for this year was to read more authors that I haven't read before. At a recent stop at the local Barnes and Noble, I picked up a couple of paperbacks by authors I had never heard of from the "Staff Picks" section. Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky is the first of the two.

Bronsky is a Russian who moved to Germany in her teens, and the story parallels this, at least in a superficial way. The novel revolves around a teenaged girl named Sascha Naimann, who is struggling in the aftermath of her mother's murder. Like Bronsky, Sascha is a Russian immigrant living in Germany. In the not too distant past, her mother was murdered by her step father, leaving behind Sascha and her two younger siblings in the care of her step father's cousin. The novel is perhaps a bit predictable in the way in which it portrays her story, but it is well written and a worthwhile read. The translation to English from the original German reads effortlessly. The novel was first published in Germany in 2008 but is new in English this year.

3.5 stars out of 5. Good but not great.

Books read in 2010: 13 [totalling 2,847 pages]
Books by new authors: 8
Books published in 2010: 5 (this counts because it first appeared in English this year)
Classics: still 3

I'm not sure what I will start next.