Through the Glass Mountain

Using the unique narrative form of her dramatic poem, 'Petrol', Martina Evans compresses her original novel, 'The Glass Mountain' into a new book of cinematic prose poetry. It is the early 1980s in Cork City and women are on the streets protesting against the contraceptives ban. The eighteen-year old narrator, Maeve, has just left the convent and it is not going well. She is failing science and trying to be a punk while Daddy Hitler keeps telling her that she is on the Highway to Nowhere. Before Maeve can figure what road she should be travelling, she finds herself making a life or death decision. "She shows an impressive command of what feels like the ideal narrative medium: individual moments and drive of narrative in perfect coordination, language alive and kicking."—Christopher Reid