I thank Net Galley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for providing me with an ARC copy of this book which I freely chose to review.
I have read and enjoyed other novels by Tracy Chevalier, and most people will be familiar with some of the titles of her books, or perhaps a popular movie adaptation of one of her books.
One of the things she excels at, judging by the books I’ve read so far, is recreating not only a historical period, but also a particular craft, vocation, or endeavour, using as a guide for the readers a gifted individual (sometimes well-known in its circle and based on a real character, sometimes anonymous and fictitious) whom we accompany in their discoveries, skill development, and craftsmanship. I am always surprised at becoming enthralled by the adventures of a protagonist who spends a lot of time doing something I’d never considered interesting before (or I might have enjoyed the finished product but never given a second thought to how it is made).
Here, Chevalier uses an interesting device to cover a very long period in the history of glassmaking in Murano, a small island very close to Venice, where the population specialised in glassmaking for centuries (and to a far lesser extent, still does). She introduces us to the Rosso family, a Murano glass-making family, in 1486, and we meet Orsola, the nine-year-old daughter of the family. Rather than follow the many generations of her family up to the present, the author uses what she calls “Venetian time, alla Veneziana” and asks readers to imagine it as the skipping of a stone over the surface of the water, but, rather than water it is time we skip over. What this means is that we follow the story of this family through the centuries, but although they age (and yes, some of them die as well), they do so at a much slower pace than the rest of the world, and so do those they are in contact with. The bigger world around them moves with the times, though, but the young girl we meet at the beginning of the novel, in the XV century, is now, in the XXI century, only in her late sixties, so you can work out the speed of time for her. The author explains how this works at the beginning, and if you think you can accept that and go along with the device, I assure you that you will enjoy the novel. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it, at first, but I didn’t find it as jarring as I imagined, I became accustomed to it pretty soon, and I loved the book.
Using this framework means that we can see how things evolved without having to meet a huge number of characters (of course, the family gets bigger, and new generations appear, but it is much more manageable than it would have been otherwise), and we also have more time to get to truly know the characters (especially Orsola), and see the way the historical changes impacted on them, a family of artisans, skilled but not the most famous or best regarded. This is not history told from the point of view of the rich and powerful, of kings and politicians. More importantly, Orsola’s perspective is quite different from that of her brother (the “maestro” of the family), and readers get to learn much about a woman’s lot in life then, her limited choices, and the way some of them got to create a niche for themselves (like Orsola, who learns to make glass beads) even if their efforts were dismissed by the men in the family.
We see glimpses of History at large: some events take a big toll on the Rosso family and their neighbours and competitors (the plague, the arrival of Napoleon, the period of Austrian Rule, the floods in Venice, WWI and II, COVID), while others have little impact on their fairly isolated lives. Some true historical figures make a fleeting appearance as well (Josephine Bonaparte, although we don’t meet her in person; Casanova, and a very interesting marchioness) but their lives, like those of the many tourists that come and visit, play no important role in the story when all is said and done. The author includes a section of acknowledgements with a bibliography (basic and in more detail) for readers interested in learning more, and she also details some of her research process, as well as mentions the real characters that make it into the story (and those who are inventions), and the sources of inspiration for some of the others, including Domenego, a slave gondolier who becomes good friends with Orsola and Antonio (Orsola’s love interest, but I don’t want to go into too much detail. Read the story if you want to know more).
The love most of the characters feel for glassmaking seems intertwined with their love for Murano. Some of the funniest (and most moving) scenes were those in which we see Orsola visiting Venice for the first time or going to Terra Ferma (the world beyond Venice, not a place where you could move by gondola or a water vessel of some sort). Let’s say she’s less than enamoured with horses and their manure on her first visit.
The story is told in the third person and, as mentioned, this is Orsola’s story, and her family’s, because she can’t imagine a life without them, without Murano, and glass. She is a wonderful character, full of energy and determination, but not a woman who strays away from her role. She does not like many aspects of it, and she struggles against what she perceives as the unfairness of her situation (she craves the admiration of her older brother, Marco, who ends up being the man of the family and the maestro of the glass factory, but they are always fighting, and he dismisses her efforts), but she mostly defers to tradition or tries to get her way by allying herself with other women in the family: Laura, the wonderful mother of the family; Monica, her brother’s second wife (and one of my favourite characters); women from other glass families (like Maria Barovier and her cousin, who guide and teach Orsola how to make beads); Luciana, a Venetian woman who always speaks her mind and is disliked for it; the daughter of the German merchant they make business with, Klara, and many more. The characters are well-defined, feel true, and become almost a part of our family by the end of the novel. Readers get to know better the older generation, but that is as it should be, I am sure I’ll miss Orsola and the family Rosso and I’ll have them on my thoughts for a long time.
I’ve already said I enjoyed the novel. In case you are worried, I liked the ending as well. We spend most of the story wondering if something will happen or not. Of course, I won’t tell you what happened, but I think the ending fits the novel well, and it made me smile. As warnings go, there are sad events in the story, of course, although nothing beyond what would be expected from a historical novel covering such a big stretch of time. There are swear words galore (it seems gondoliers, in the past at least, used choice language with their kind, and they had quite an imagination!), but those are in Italian/Venetian. There are also plenty of words in Italian (and some in the Venetian dialect); most of them are easy to work out from the context, and in other cases, they tend to be explained within the text, at least the first time they appear. There is also a Glossary at the end for those who prefer to know exactly what every word means. I only had access to an ARC copy, so I am unsure if there might be a direct link to the definitions of the terms in the glossary for those who access the final version. Be prewarned, though: insults are also translated, so be careful what you check if you prefer to avoid that kind of language.
This is a great historical novel, though it requires readers to engage in the way the author has chosen to adapt the passing of time, and it is a beautiful book about Murano, glassmaking, and what life has been like for women living in that region and for glassmaking families from Murano and Venice over the years. It is an ambitious book, and it covers over five centuries, but it remains focused on a woman and her family, and that is what makes it so engaging and enjoyable. Totally recommended.

Sometimes you read a book that just blows you away. For depth of research, for understanding of culture and family, for delving into women’s issues and for capturing a location over such a breadth of time, this book is an absolute treasure. The changes that glassmakers faced over the years in Murano were real and I particularly enjoyed the most recent instance of COVID and over tourism. This would have to be my favourite book thus far this year. Orsola and her family were a pleasure to spend time with, and I feel that I have learned a lot about a place that I have visited but probably didn’t understand. Many thanks to NetGalley for a chance to review this book.

This book is enthralling, Tracey really draws you into the setting (Murano and Venice) and you find yourself never wanting the story to end. I learned a lot about glass making and bead making and finished the book wanting to visit Murano.

I love that even though each of her books are about very different things they are so well researched you really feel as if you are there, living in the era she is writing about. If you've enjoyed her other books you will love this one too.

In the preface it says this: ‘People who make things also have an ambiguous relationship with time….creators often enter an absorbed state that psychologists call flow, in which hours pass without their noticing.’ For me this was essential knowledge for reading The Glassmaker.
As a creator who is familiar with the flow state and what it does to time, or one’s perception of it; how it pretty much ceases to exist, to stretch or shrink unpredictably, to become meaningless, that one stretches out into the infinite; knowing this gave me an immediate insight into what I was about to read.

I loved this book. For me, rather than being a historical or surreal journey through the history of Murano glass, Venice and its people (though that was presented both with accuracy and imagination), it became a detailed dive into the lives and issues that surrounded glassmakers and their families, moment to moment, whatever external matters were doing. How they negotiated their relationships, their craft, how they developed and grew through hardships and became more robust yet more sensitive to one another. How they honed and adapted their craft. Also, how they were able to keep a tenuous connection to those who were still ensnared in time.

I love glass, particularly Murano (I have a few pieces), and Venice, and I enjoyed learning much more. Fact and fiction woven masterfully together.

I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity to read this book. It will remain with me.

I loved this book - it really lived up to the expectations. Thank you to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

Thoroughly enjoyed the story of Orsola Rosso and her glassmaker family; the timeslip was cleverly done, using the device of a skipping stone (so the family hardly ages while events whirl round them - a touch of magical realism, but it works really well). The vivid descriptions really brought Venice to life, from the plague in the medieval era through to modern-day Covid lockdown and everything in between. The detail of the glassmaking was fascinating (if you loved the needlework in A Single Thread, you will love this, too); and the family relationships rang true, with a mixture of love and jealousy and resentment and pride. Really good at showing how the role of women in the industry changed, too. Beautifully written, full of emotion and thoroughly recommended.

Thank you to the author, HarperCollins and Netgalley for the ARC.

The Glassmaker by T. Chevalier is a historical novel, starting in the 14hundereds, showing the art of glassmaking over the times and places like Murano, Venice - the city of waters.
Blurb: It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers in 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 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.

This story is set on the Venetian Island of Murano known for its glassmaking. It is set over six centuries and follows the fortunes of the Rosso family through the clever device of claiming that time is different on the islands. As a stone is skimmed over the water and lands at different points in time we see Venice at the height of its importance as a trading post, then again when the plague comes to the lagoon, when Napoleon arrives, at a point WW1, during covid and finally in 2019.
Orsolo is a daughter of the Rosso, traditionally the girls to get involved in the glassmaking but run the house, however, after the early death of her family, Orsolo begins a small cottage industry making glass beads in order to help the family finances.
The main members of the Rosso family remain during each time change, although they gradually age, marry, have children and some die. The loves and tensions, joys and failures of the family are perfectly played out against the backdrop of the glass industry. There is a huge amount of detail about the making of both glass and beads but at no point did it feel overwhelming. Personally, I was fully involved in Orsolo's story and will her well in all areas of her life. Chevalier does not brush over the horrors the family faced, particularly during the plague but also over the business and things were not always easy for them.
As always with this author the writing is beautiful and research detailed so the reader is completely immersed in the time and the place. I very much enjoyed it and than Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

I enjoyed the ability the author of this book had for describing Venice and Murano whilst explaining glassmaking processes in an interesting way. I think, because I have been to Venice before, this allowed me to enjoy the book more as I was so easily able to picture the descriptions.
Where the book fell short, for me, was with the depth of the characters. Though some characters felt more fleshed-out than others, there was no real point where I started to feel I connected with any of them. I even felt that I didn’t really know the main character, Orsola. Her thought processes and morals were conveyed, however, I never felt that I could relate to her enough.
The time travel-esque aspect of the book was definitely interesting, but it sometimes felt unnecessarily confusing and dragged the length of the book further than was necessary.
Overall, an interesting summer read for any lovers of Italy and Venice.

I was enthralled from start to finish. Not only did I learn about glass but the history of Venice and of course Murano but the world too. Great character's and a wonderfully drawn backdrop of Venice. I liked skimming the stones to go through time to see what was happening and how far everyone had come during the time span.
Simply loved it!

Excellent what I liked most about this was the span across centuries, the historical details and the colourful characters. Really, really good.

The characterisation in this book was great, and the historical detail about Venice through 500+ years was spectacular. I also found the level of detail about the glass making process absolutely fascinating (possibly because I work with stained glass myself), where others have said it was too much. However, I just couldn't get on with the time jumping and found that it took me out of the flow of the story and irritated me. Overall, this was an interesting read, but the time slips just got on my nerves. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

This is such a clever book, enabling the reader to easily understand five hundred years of Venetian history whilst telling an almost linear family story. The device of moving the time backdrop behind the characters is masterly and instructive, inviting the reader into the world of glassmaking.

The reader is seamlessly transported from medieval trading to a post-covid world. The characters are so beautifully drawn that they and their relationships between each other means that you barely notice the speeded up politics and landscape. In other hands this could be clunky, irritating and tricksy but Chevalier's vision and craft caught me (and held me) in its slipstream.

I thought it was completely fabulous

With thanks to #NetGalley and #BoroughPress for the opportunity to read and review

Another great read from Tracey Chevalier. A historical fictionalisation of the lives of tthe glassmakers of Murano, with an original time-slip element. I thoroughly enjoyed the way that the story was told like the liquidity of melted glass. Great characterisation and plotting and the sense of place was superb. I have never been to Venice , but the descriptions seemed very believable. Thank you net galley for this proof copy.

This is a very wonderful book indeed! It follows the story of Orsola Rosso, who is a young girl from Murano when the story begins, in 1486 and an old woman when the story ends in the present day. Surely that cannot be right? Tracy Chevalier uses a brilliant device, making time in Venice pass slowly, and time in the rest of the world pass much faster. This could be confusing, but it is done so well that the story flows through centuries without a hitch. Orsola comes from a family of glassmakers on the Venetian island of Murano - she has a real talent herself for working with glass, but at the start of the story this is just not something any one of the Murano glass makers would even consider - a girl? making glass? No no no no! As the story moves through time Orsola’s skill grows and she becomes a glassmaker in her own right, with help from a wide cast of beautifully drawn characters, but not always from her own family. The narrative takes the reader through so much of the history of Venice and Murano glass, and it does so with tremendous skill, knowledge and impressive research. This is my book of the year to date - it really should be up for the major prizes!

I was delighted to receive a review copy of Tracy Chevalier's latest novel. It was fascinating to learn about the complex crafting of Murano glass and the hierarchy in the workshops, and to witness Orsola, one of so few women glassworkers, quietly and often secretly making her mark. However, the descriptions of bead-making were too detailed and too frequent.

As time went on tensions in the Rosso family increased as the men battled to be the master and the women struggled to hold the family together through plague, hunger, flood and many other setbacks inflicted upon them through the centuries.

As for the timeline I was at first irritated by the leaps forward through time but then decided to accept them, telling myself that I was reading not only a family saga but also a potted history of the intriguing city of Venice. However, the ending felt completely wrong. Orsola was in her 60s in the 21st century but the returning character who logically would have been a similar aged Antonio was a many times great-grandson. I wonder why the author chose to end the novel with a situation that was so inconsistent with the rest of the book.

As always with Chevalier this novel is immensely readable and meticulously researched, but for me it is not her best.

This is the story of Orsola Rossi, born in the 15th century to a family of glassmakers on the island of Murano. The novel is a mix of family saga, a carefully researched account of how different forms of glass, in particular glass as an art form, are made and also an overview of the history of Venice over the last 600 years as it concludes in the present day.

Orsola and her immediate family and friends age normally, but time moves on without them which allows Chevalier to show us Venice in the plague, Venice invaded by Napoleon, Venice flooded, Venice invaded by tourists and Venice in covid lockdown. I did get used to this but found it slightly unnerving.

The family saga aspect is well done, full of small details about family rivalries, the difficulty or otherwise of accepting new family members who marry in as well as the confinements of women and the ways in which Orsola is gradually and rather grudgingly allowed to make glass (but only beads) of her own.

Definitely a good read. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

This beautifully written historical novel/ family saga follows the Rossi family of glassmakers, focusing on Orsola Rossi, who in a time when glassmaking was a man's world, breaks tradition by making beads to support her family.

The novel spans several centuries ( the characters age slowly while the world around them changes rapidly) - initially this is confusing but quickly becomes a natural part of the storytelling. This is an absolute must-read for lovers of historical fiction or even those who have a soft spot for Venice.

This latest novel by Tracy Chevalier, with her wonderful characters and vivid depictions quickly transported me back into the scenic waterways of Venice, and its alluring charm and glass pieces.

The novel follows the captivating story of a family of Murano glassmakers whose lives are intertwined with Venice's history. Murano, with its timeless atmosphere, provides the backdrop for the Rossi family's journey.

At its core is Orsola Rossi and her family, navigating through challenges and triumphs. In a traditionally male-dominated glassmaking industry, Orsola breaks conventions by venturing into bead production to support her family, echoing the pioneering spirit of Maria Barovier.

Set against Venice's historical backdrop, the family experiences love, tragedy, and illness. The narrative intertwines with Venice's evolution from a bustling trade hub to a tourist destination, facing plagues, invasions, and environmental challenges like floods. Despite these, Venice preservers, relying on its charm to attract admirers.

Through compelling storytelling, the novel portrays Venice's resilience and the Rossi family's legacy amidst the currents of history.

I loved this book and am so grateful to Net Galley and HarperCollins UK for providing an advanced reading copy. This is one that I will purchase so that I can read it all over again after it is published. If you enjoy literary historical fiction and have a passion for Venice like I do, you won't want to miss this one

A beautifully written, well researched historical novel, set in Venice & the island of Murano.

We follow Orsala, from the age of nine & the people that are important to her, from 1486 to the present day. We learn how she adapts to these changes ranging from the Plague to Covid. This sounds confusing, on first thought, but the way the time line has been written makes the reader move along with it, with such ease.

The author gives wonderful descriptions & intricate detail of glass making, Venice & Murano.
I have read previous books by this author & once again she hasn't disappointed!
I highly recommend this book & I know
the characters will stay with you, long after you've finished reading.
Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.