A crash site memorial for a daughter is disturbed by road workers, a son goes missing after an earthquake, a husband struggles with his wife going into dementia care, grandparents meet-up with a grandchild they lost contact with when his parents divorced, a late-in-life relationship is broken apart when his health declines, a couple who lease out their basement flat discover a former tenant has been linked to a murder ... Each of Karen Phillips’ stories is like the glass houses in the title story – small pieces, some opaque and some translucent, that offer glimpses of ordinary families whose lives are coming apart, sometimes in ways imperceptible to the outside eye. Memories of a kinder past are one way to pull things back together and simple humanity is another, but sometimes the answer is where you least expect it.