Acclaimed author Patricia Schonstein has published her eighth novel, The Glass Island, a daring and spellbinding work that shimmers with her signature theatricality, sensuality, and candour.

Set in a Venetian‑esque golden city slowly sinking into ruin and on the island beyond its lagoon, the novel explores humanity’s failings through a surreal blend of autobiography, parable, and speculative fiction. Once a prison for political dissenters, the island is now home to the mysterious Magistra and her Contemplatives, who have created a sanctuary of peace in a world darkened by moral decay.

Five powerful figures arrive on the island to confront ethical collapse and tyranny. Under Magistra’s watch — and in the presence of a concealed sixth character — they consider whether creativity and Truth can stand against oppression.

Threaded with poems, works of art, and sensuous descriptions of food and interiors, The Glass Island is a meditation on beauty and brutality, and on humanity’s never‑ending beguilement with war. Schonstein’s characters perform with refined precision, their voices resonating in ritualistic, stylised gestures that heighten the novel’s otherworldly atmosphere.

Schonstein herself reflects: “I can’t believe how humanity tramples beauty, creation, animals, ocean, each other when I am so aware of miracle and wonder. I’m like: ‘People! Just fall to your knees and pay homage, instead of destroying everything.’”

With its daring structure and lyrical prose, The Glass Island invites readers into a layered, provocative world where fantasy and fact are neighbours, and where the power of imagination becomes a moral act.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patricia Schonstein, based in Cape Town, is an acclaimed novelist, poet, and curator of anthologies. Her fiction spans magical realism, speculative fiction, meta‑fiction, and narrative fiction, celebrated for its lyrical prose and moral urgency. Her novels are richly detailed, weaving art, poetry, fine fabrics, and sensuous descriptions of food into evocative landscapes where angels, rogues, soldiers, and seekers grapple with longing, betrayal, forgiveness, and humanity’s recurring defaults to war. At their heart lies a meditation on beauty and brutality, and on the triumphs of the human spirit over adversity. As a curator, Schonstein champions poetry as a way to kindle light in dark places, believing it conveys beauty, love, and forgiveness.

'The Glass Island' is published by African Sun Press