Dreams Under Glass
As the economy collapses around her in 2008 New York City, recent art school graduate Binnie takes a job as a paralegal to pay the bills. As her art projects languish on the back burner, she begins to obsessively imagine her daily grind expressed in unsettling and sometimes violent dioramas. Somehow, someday, she’ll find the time to construct them. In the meantime, she’ll walk this unsatisfying tightrope between financial stability and the life of a working artist.
But after a shocking and surreal death occurs at the law firm, Binnie wonders if her frustration is pushing her darkest imaginings into life.
Anca L. Szilágyi is the author of Daughters of the Air, which Shelf Awareness called “a striking debut from a writer to watch” and Dreams Under Glass, which Buzzfeed Books called “a novel for our modern times.” Her writing appears in Orion Magazine, Fairy Tale Review, and Newsweek, among other publications, and has been listed as notable in Best American Essays 2023. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from Made at Hugo House, Jack Straw Cultural Center, 4Culture, Artist Trust, and Vermont Studio Center. Originally from Brooklyn, she has lived in Montreal, Seattle, and now Chicago, where she teaches creative writing.