The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

Henry Holt, January 2009

   It’s not revealing too much to say that Ali Shaw’s magical debut novel, The Girl With Glass Feet concerns a young woman who faces what is indeed a most unusual malady. Ida Maclaird has come to the icy archipelago of St. Hauda’s Land seeking a man – one she’d met while on vacation in the mysterious islands six months back, before the glass. This man, Henry Fuwa – part Japanese, all recluse - had spoken to Ida of strange phenomena, of tiny moth-winged cattle, of a beast who can turn another living thing white with a glance, and of glass bodies hidden in a St. Hauda’s Land marsh.
   In her quest for Fuwa, Ida finds instead Midas Crook, a St. Hauda’s Land native, the victim of a loveless childhood and extreme self-consciousness. Midas awkwardly keeps the intimidating world at bay with his camera, for it is only through the filter of photography that he is able to interact with his environment. In fact, it is while chasing light with camera in hand through his home’s dense forests that Midas literally stumbles upon Ida, her feet swaddled in layers of socks within huge policeman's boots:

"She looked like she'd stepped through the screen of a 1950s movie. Her skin and blond hair were such pale shades they looked monochrome...Her irises were titanium gray, her most striking feature. Her lips were an afterthought and her cheekbones flat. But her eyes... He realized he was staring into them and quickly looked away."

   Ali Shaw paints his fictional setting in similarly cold Nordic hues, with writing that is rich and lyrical. His characters are hauntingly real, often maddeningly flawed individuals who find themselves more complexly intertwined with each other than even they were aware of. The Girl With Glass Feet is a story of love and transformation that, while not cheerful, is magical - a fantastic debut from this young British author.

http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/girl-with-glass-feet.htm