Description

From the bestselling historical novelist, a rich, transporting story that follows a family of glassmakers from the height of Renaissance-era Italy to the present day.

It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers on Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass—but she has the hands for it, the heart, and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make glass beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes.

Skipping like a stone through the centuries, in a Venice where time moves as slowly as molten glass, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague devastating Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.

Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is spellbinding: a mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city as everlasting as their glass.

‘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

‘Meticulously researched and evoking the beauty of the Venice lagoon, the story challenges and transports the reader through time and place’ PHILIPPA GREGORY

‘This charming fable is at once a love story that skips through six centuries, and also a love song to the timeless craft of glassmaking. Chevalier probes the fierce rivalries and enduring loyalties of Murano’s glass dynasties, capturing the roar of the furnace, the sweat on the skin, and the glittering beauty of Venetian glass’ GERALDINE BROOKS

‘Chevalier, one of our great storytellers, brings us unexpected worlds: Venice and Murano, artisans and empresses, compelling us through five fascinating centuries, with one irresistible family, weaving stories that captivate and transport the reader’ AMY BLOOM

‘Tracy Chevalier pens a novel as ambitious, audacious, and artistic as a Venetian glass goblet… The Glassmaker is a thing of beauty’ KATE QUINN

‘A richly-drawn tale about loyalty and heartbreak, as well as a love letter to the craftsmen―and women―who created exquisite treasures that endure through the ages. A stunning achievement. I couldn’t put it down’ FIONA DAVIS

‘Inspiring, heartbreaking, and magical, The Glassmaker is an inventive and extraordinary feat and an epic for the ages’ KRISTIN HARMEL

‘I lost myself in this beautiful book’ ESTHER FREUD