THE WORLD IS MADE OF GLASS is a story of love, sexual obsession, murder, the mysterious infection of guilt and the absolute need of forgiveness as a condition of human sanity. The narrative is founded on fact: a case history recorded in the autobiography of Carl Gustav Jung, one of the pioneers of modern psychiatry. His account is brief, undated and curiously cryptic: "A lady came into my office. She refused to give her name..she wished to have only one consultation. What she had to communicate to me was a confession. Some twenty years ago, she had committed a murder. " Morris West's version of the encounter is a fascinating blend of truth and dramatic speculation. The events cover the golden time of the Belle Epoque, right up to the twilight year 1913, before the lights went out over Europe and the First World War began. This was a year of crisis for Jung. He was estranged from his old friend and master, Freud. His wife was pregnant with their fifth child. He had given up his lectureship at the University and his work as senior clinician at the Burholzii Mental Hospital. He had begun a love-affair with his one-time pupil Toni Wolff and, to cap it all, he was already suffering from a manic depressive illness that was to last four years. The impact of his encounter with the unnamed woman - mature, beautiful, depraved, yet crying out for healing and pardon - had an explosive effect on Jung and brought him very close to a total breakdown. The woman herself is a classic creation whose story will haunt the reader long after the last page is turned. THE WORLD IS MADE OF GLASS may well be judged to be Morris West's masterwork.