I love The Glassmaker by Tracy Chelvalier. TC is a wonderful storyteller and this tomb of a book shows all of her wonderful skills of bringing us on a journey of magic and intrigue. TC sets this book in Italy around a Murano glass family and takes us all back in time to meet the personalities and traditions through the ages. She skillfully takes us through the events in Italy over the course of four hundred years interweaving the core values of love and family through time. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes to learn some history whilst enjoying a sensory trip through the streets of Murano and Venice.

One can scarcely begin to imagine the scale of the research that must have gone into this latest work of historical fiction from Tracy Chevalier. But that, combined with fabulous storytelling, an imaginative structure and evocative sense of time and place, makes The Glassmaker at once a mesmerizing and illuminating read.

It’s an ambitious piece of writing, spanning centuries and multiple defining periods in history. It is the story of the world-famous Murano glass, the art of its making, and the numerous challenges it faces through times of plague, floods, war, and more recently, foreign competition in its once exclusive market.

At its heart are the Rossos, a family of glassmakers with a long tradition, whom we first meet in 1486, when its master glassmaker and head of the family dies in a tragic workshop accident. It falls to his sons to carry on the business, but it is daughter Orsolo who flaunts male tradition to save her family from ruin.

What makes this book so unique is its time-lapse narrative, which repeatedly skips across decades, while keeping at its core the Rossos, aging infinitesimally, as they are transplanted into each new era.

Chevalier’s vivid depiction of a changing Venice through the centuries is fascinating in its detail, from being a thriving center of European society and global trade to its seizure by Napolean, occupation by Austria, and its rebirth after devastating floods. This, on its own, was an engaging history lesson. Equally so, the story of the art glassmaking.

All these aspects, however, are but background to the story of Orsolo and her troubled, expanding family; a sweeping narrative that encompasses love, loss, sacrifice and heartache, and the constant struggle to survive in an ever-changing world. Ultimately — and I loved that this was so — it is the Rosso women — the mothers, daughters, wives — who provide the backbone that carries them through.

A brilliant novel combining meticulous research with boldly drawn characters and magnificent storytelling.

This book starts in 1486 on the glassmaking island of Murano, near Venice with the Rosso family. Orsola, the daughter has a love for glassmaking and a head for business but alas she is a woman. Taking inspiration from another woman in the glassmaking business she learns to make beads which become very popular and manages to save her family’s business.

This story skips through centuries so Orsola loses family members in the Black Death and zooms along to also lose family members in the Covid 16 pandemic. I found this odd and a bit off putting but the basic story held my attention.Well worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

I enjoyed reading about the history of glassmaking in Murano, where I was sorry not to have visited when I was in Venice years ago. I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia looking things up which is always an enjoyable accompaniment to reading a novel.

That being said, I found it difficult to understand exactly why the book was structured as it was, jumping through time as if it was a peculiarly Venetian thing to do. I accept that the author wanted to explore the long, storied history of Venice and Murano, but I felt that has been competently done in other books without keeping the same central characters alive over hundreds of years. I didn’t exactly dislike it, but it niggled at me throughout the novel like probing a loose tooth.

This is a captivating tale. As I read this book I could see each place mentioned. I felt like I was walking through the streets in Venice or drifting up and down the canals. Time almost stood still especially in Murano. I have seen the glass beads being made and I relived these memories through the pages of this story. I loved it It takes a specially talented author to flawlessly intertwine the story through 6 centuries. If you love Venice it is well worth a read. Thank you NetGalley, Tracy and Harper Collins for this ARC.

Orsola Rosso was born into glass. Living in Murano, an island off Venice, her father and brothers are work everyday blowing and shaping glass, and she is the girl looking in, trying to find a place for herself within the art. Her chances comes in the form of beads, her heart in the shape of a Venetian man, and as centuries pass, the Rossos and their glass change along with it.

This was a beautifully told story that will make you want to stand in the bustling streets of Venice, smell the canal water, hear the shouts and singing of the gondoliers and maybe even take the water taxi over to Murano and study the beautiful glassware shining in the windows.

Orsola is a character built of fortitude - made to feel lesser then by her bully of a brother, and forced to do household labour by her mother and sister-in-law, she stills finds ways to make her own art and also have her own moments of joy. She constantly fights for her family, even when they have given up on themselves and the only gripe I would have is she is never truly given the credit she deserves for saving them many times over. As the world changes, Orsola experiences many things but is never in the center of them - I liked this as a way of examining the changes in the world, the affect this had on a trade city like Venice and in turn Murano, while not pushing the character too much into something that would have felt too much for her.

The choice of the author to add the slight magical realism element of having the Rossos and their friends and acquaintances age normally but let the world fast forward around them sometimes skipping almost 100 years was interesting and hard to really understand at first. But I liked seeing how the Rossos dealt with plague, war, Napoleon and then the modern age - we even see the Covid pandemic referenced. I think the story would have worked just as well being stuck in a certain era as I was entranced by Orsola and her personality, her love and her art on its own.

Author Tracy Chevalier is a wonderful writer and storyteller and she did not disappoint me with this one. What a wonderful book and story about Orsola Rosso, a woman, a bead maker who is trying to save her family from ruin but is not accepted as a working woman. She has to work in secret and through many periods of hardship.

Set in Venice, 1486 this is such a wonderful story and one I thoroughly enjoyed. There is much detail but not over the top or boring, the story flows with ease making it easy to read and follow and the story itself is powerful, emotional and really does take you on a journey through the life of this family and the life of the times. I highly recommend it as a wonderful read.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book now sits in my top ten novels of all time. I loved so much about the description and characters of Murano glassmakers through all the eras. I found the timeline a little confusing to begin with but just went with it and by the end, I was so engaged with the main family that it became completely irrelevant. I feel I learned so much from the historical content that is included in a way that enhances rather than detracts from the story. An excellent novel. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a DRC.

I love Tracy Chevalier and was really looking forward to this. I was NOT disappointed! Loved the characters and the setting in Venice and Murano. A sweeping historical tale. Highly recommend

The Glassmaker is an epic read covering six centuries yet featuring the same principal characters throughout. It’s a device which shouldn’t work and yet it does. The centuries pass, national and global events occur as well as events within the family and it is the Rosso family which hold it all together. Orsola Rosso is a young girl in the fourteenth century. Denied the opportunity to become a glass maker like her brothers, she learns to make beads from a craftswoman in a rival family. The descriptions of the glassmaking skills are wonderful as are the descriptions of Venice over the centuries and Murano, the island where the glass makers live and work. At its height, Murano glass was prized throughout the world but to survive it became necessary to adapt and Orsola guides her family as best she can, sensitive to the senior status of her mother and her brothers. I found the earlier half of the book the most compelling, in particular the family’s struggle to survive the frequent outbreaks of the plague. The Glassmaker brings Venice vividly to life across the centuries. One of my favourite Tracy Chevallier books.

My thanks to the author, publishers and Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for a voluntary, independent review.

I was so excited to receive an advance copy of The Glassmaker since one of Tracy Chevalier's other books, A Single Thread, is an all-time favourite of mine. It was just the reason I needed to explore some more of her work.

In several ways, the novel explores similar themes to A Single Thread: finding meaning as a "spare woman" and the power of art, craft and creativity are both at the fore. However, Chevalier does so much more than this in The Glassmaker, creating a spellbinding world centred around Murano and Venice. The places at the heart of the novel shine through on every page – this could not have been set anywhere else – and the author perfectly captures the singular nature of the Veneto through painstaking research that is woven lightly into the story.

The other stars of this novel are its characters, particularly the women (and our protagonist, Orsola). Their depiction gave the book its emotional heft – the familial relationships and dash of romance were relatable and moving. I particularly appreciated the satisfying conclusion.

The Glassmaker is set apart from other historical fiction I've read because of the author's original approach to time. The book opens with a brief explanation of time "alla veneziana" which addresses the central conceit that time flows differently in this region and we will encounter our characters over many centuries. I was curious to see how this would work and it was ultimately quite unobtrusive. The later sections did not hook me in quite as much as those earlier on and it felt like time was speeding up (which was perhaps deliberate), but the temporal magic was fitting and did not seem gimmicky.

This book left me with a much greater appreciation of the need to protect traditions passed down with the generations, whilst remaining open to change and progress. This delicate balance was explored beautifully.

Lovers of historical fiction (with a hint of magical realism) will adore this novel, and I would particularly recommend it to fans of authors such as Isabel Allende, Elif Shafak and Maggie O'Farrell. I will certainly be seeking out more of Tracy Chevalier's work.

This was a real gem of a novel that is so well-researched and utterly immersive and I would give it more than five stars if I could. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance copy of The Glassmaker in exchange for an honest review. I have since purchased my own copy of the book with beautiful end papers and sprayed edges and it will be taking pride of place amongst my most treasured books.

Just wonderful - a felt totally transported and loved every vivid page. So generous and clever and full of life and spirit. A towering achievement.

An enjoyable novel about glassmaking in Murano. The story spans the centuries from the 1480s to 1922, and Covid - yet Orsola (the protagonist) and her family age much more slowly! (The reason for this is not apparent to this reader). Not, in my opinion, Tracey Chevalier's best work, but worth a read.

With thanks to NetGalley and The Borough Press for and ARC.

Wow - this book was so stunningly beautiful - easily one of my favourite reads of the year and one that I will think about often.

Just fabulous. What a brilliant storyline and writing and I just love the way the story unfolds over the years. The characters are just so vivid and story so clever; you totally feel as though you are living in Venice and watching their stories play out.

This historical fiction about a family of glassmakers on Murano was atmospheric and had a great sense of place.
It took me a while to realise what was happening with the time jumps. There'd be a big time jump so that the novel spans hundreds of years but the characters would age much slower. This didn't really work for me but was a clever idea.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Chevalier’s writing is a joy. - so easy to read and so enthralling. I adored this journey into Murano and Venice’s history.

The narration and playing with time were quirky and although they should not have worked they really did. It allowed the novel to cover briefly many periods of time and the history of glass making while allowing for character depth and continuity.

I loved the myriad characters and descriptions of family life.

Beautifully written and a wonderful escape into Murano.

Loved this! I particularly enjoyed the way Chevalier played with time in this novel. I’m pretty sure it improved the pace of the storytelling. As well-researched and evocative as I’ve come to expect from one of my favourite authors of historical fiction.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier is a beautifully crafted novel about glassmaking, the Island of Murano and Venice.
At the heart of the story is the large Rosso family who we follow for centuries.

Chevalier clearly did her research when it comes to glass and bead-making, and it was interesting how the work evolved over time and following the daily lives of the makers.

There are a lot of names, several generations + extra characters here - take some time to organise them in your mind.

The structure and the timeline of this novel is very original. It’s a risky move and either the skipping forward in time whilst following the same protagonist (who doesn’t naturally age ) will work for you, or it won’t.
Personally, I would have been very happy with this read as a plain historical fiction novel diving even deeper into the characters. A lot of the writing is dedicated to the skills and process of glassmaking over hundreds of years. I felt the balance here could have been better, I wanted to be more invested in Orsola and her personal journey - the book compromises here allowing for characters to ‘live forever’ for the sake of showing the history of glassmaking over time.

The time-jumping is ok but as a reader you have to adapt to mobile phones and zoom calls towards the end of the story (and Covid!) when the novel originally started in the 1400’s and Venice / Murano was ravaged by the plague. I guess it shows the way life is cyclical and it is clever if you allow for the magical realism.

Finally; Venice is on my list of places to visit and I love the way Chevalier described the city and its surroundings.
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Rating 3/5 with extra points for research and the beautiful descriptions of Venice with a dash of Italian language.

Free copy from NetGally in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful book recommendation: ‘The Glass Maker’ by @tracychevalierwriter.

Set in the glassmaking enclave of Murano, in the Venetian lagoon, across several centuries, this is a thing of beauty that ripples with gorgeous descriptions, characters to care about, and a thought provoking perspective on history, time, and place.

It follows the life and fortunes of Orsola, daughter of a longstanding if unexceptional glass family, the Rossi, taking in others who the tide of time washes into their lives, including German merchants, a gorgeous Venetian fisherman, and an enslaved African gondolier.

It’s not a high stakes, tense, plot-driven read; it ripples and flows like glass, or the Venetian lagoon (no coincidence, I suspect).

Within the novel, time flows much more slowly in Murano and Venice than on the mainland, or ‘terra firma’. It’s an unusual premise and I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but Chevalier makes it work brilliantly. Her characters are so well crafted that it somehow feels natural to see them deal with plague, trade, colonialism, war, technology, tourism, climate change, and Covid without things feeling strained (this can’t have been easy - I’m in awe).

There’s also some mighty skilful weaving of glassmaking information and historical detail into a narrative that glows with family tensions and tenderness. And I ended up caring deeply about the Rosso family and loved learning about Murano glass, even if I did struggle a bit to take in the technical details at the start. It was more than worth persevering for what bloomed into a wonderful book.