Alessandro Baricco: Lands of Glass [2003]

From one of Italy's most brilliant and most inventive writers comes the story of two visionaries of the mid-nineteenth century and a tale of angry visions, confused emotions and fantastic ambitions. Hector Horeau is an architect with a fantastical notion of whole cities made of glass, and Mr Rail has imagined sheets of glass larger than anyone thinks they will ever need. It is 1849, and the Great Universal Exposition has announced a competition. Together Horeau and Rail build a palace more beautiful than any before...