The Glassmaker

Anne's Review 

Best-selling author Tracy Chevalier has produced another marvellous historical novel. The Glass Maker transports the reader through time and space, beginning in Venice in 1486, and continuing through to the present day. The glass makers live on the island of Murano, now famous for its centuries-old tradition of glassmaking that attracts tourists from all over the world. The centre of the story, Orsola Rosso, looks on with envy as the men in her family turn molten glass into goblets and bowls, while at same time carefully observing their techniques. Soon she is making exquisite glass beads worn by empresses and courtesans, and provides a source of much-needed income for her family through devastating times of war and plague. 
   
The audacious aspect of this new historical novel is its treatment of time. While we are taken from the height of Renaissance Italy through to the present day, time moves much more slowly on Murano. Decades pass, but the characters age by only a few years, while history, like molten glass, swirls around them and into their lives. We travel through, for example, the Napoleonic era, the two world wars, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Glass Marker is also a love story, and a fascinating account of the art of glassmaking itself. A beautifully written book about a woman’s desire for independence that will appeal to lovers of historical novels.

Publisher's Review 

FROM THE GLOBALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING.

'A triumph… a brilliant idea carried out with confidence and brio and a deep love of an extraordinary city. The ingenuity of the time-skipping is beyond admiration' - PHILIP PULLMAN

'Spellbinding…. Chevalier at her fabulous best. A rich, vivid and gently enchanting novel' - ELIF SHAFAK

Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to handle.

Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime.

Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.

The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?

Tracy Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is vivid, inventive, spellbinding: a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.