A new Tracy Chevalier novel is always welcome in this house. In this one we have the story of the island of Murano and its place in the history of glassmaking. The story is told over several centuries and through the eyes of Orsola, a member of a glassmaking family who starts making glass beads to help her family after the tragic death of her father.

I loved this book. The descriptions of Murano and Venice through the ages are so vivid that you can see and smell the city as though you were there. Chevalier also goes into great detail about how glass is made and I now really regret my decision not to visit Murano during my two visits to Venice.

I wasn't sure about the time travel aspect of the book. I tend to like my fiction to have its feet firmly in reality (though there are exceptions of course). This book turned out to be one of them. The idea of time being fluid just as glass is worked well in my opinion and I had no problem at all in believing in Orsola and her companions not ageing at the same rate as the rest of the world.

I have to mention the cover as well. It's made to look like pieces of glass with the most stunning font for the title and author name. I love it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Borough Press for the ARC of this remarkable book.

Tracy Chevalier books are always reliably good and interesting - what a jewel of a writer she is. I loved her last book about bell ringing and needlepoint and experts at their craft once agin feature in this new novel about Murano Glassmaking near Venice. The conceit here is that we follow Orsola (and her friends and family) from the Renaissance through to the current day as they age differently to real ife, so we see how the history of glassmaking and its fortunes changes over the centuries at specific points in time - so perhaps 200 years in time will pass but Orsola and her family and colleagues will have only aged say 9 years. This allows Chevalier to explore the heyday of Murano glass making when Murano could only be reached by boat from Venice and anyone involved in the glass making could never leave and take the secrets of production with them on pain of being traced and assassinated, through to hard times during the plague, growing competition and tarrifs form Eastern and other European countries. A decline into surviving thorugh producing whimsical tourist trinkets and our own most recent "plague." It also allows us to see how Orsola navigates her relationships and adapts to changing times and how she herself grows older.

I looked forward each day to catching up with Orsola whilst reading the book. A good read.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

Love , love, love books by this author and until now her previous title A Single Thread was my favourite from her. That is until now , another brilliant read with characters you feel you would have for friends had you been around them.

The Glassmaker is an outstanding historical novel told in a really unusual and unique way.

The novel covers 500 years, starting in the 1400s and ending just after the covid pandemic. We follow Orsola, the daughter of a maestro glassmaker based in Murano near Venice. The passage of time and the ageing of Orsola and her family do not happen at the same rate. Time skips forward alongside the imagery of a stone being skimmed on the water. But Orsola ages much more slowly and is only in her sixties at the end of the novel. The first time this happens, I was a bit confused but you find the rhythm of the book I accepted that actually this was a clever way of staying focussed on the same set of characters whilst understanding the historical changes of the place around them. Some of the history is explained in detail for instance how the family cope during the plague and other historical events pass by in a flash. I enjoyed the paragraphs where the history of many years was summarised briefly. It was very interesting to consider the changes one family endured, which would normally have played out across many generations.

I loved this book. It is a family saga set against a backdrop of how a traditional craft fares against an ever changing world, told in a really unique way. Recommended to anyone who enjoys a historical novel. I couldn't rate it as anything other than 5 star because I enjoyed it so much!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier

A captivating story that follows an Italian glassmaking family through 300 years of tragedy and triumphs.
Through the eyes and experiences of Orsola Rossa life in and around Murano and Venice is brought to life- the patriarchal system relegated her to a life of servitude and menial household tasks but Orsola is determined to contribute to the family by learning to make glass beads- something that her glass making father and brothers would not demean themselves to do. Family fortunes suffer when her father is killed by a shard of glass and the eldest brother becomes the Maestro . His greed and selfishness nearly destroys the family business with politics and pestilence threatening to diminish the family even more.
Orsola's first love is Antonio who is forced to leave Murano but she never forgets him and the regular appearance of special glass dolphins keeps his memory alive.
The journey through the years takes the reader back as Orsola survives from 1600s to the present day- the author using the metaphor of stone skimming to skip through the years - a device that takes a while to grapple with, but as we travel through history- plague, floods, deaths and wars and follow the fortunes and misfortunes of Venetian glassmakers the reader is captivated by the detailed world and vivid lives described.
An engrossing read that I was genuinely sad to finish.

This is the story of Orsola Rosso, daughter of a glassmaker’s dynasty in Murano, starting in 1486 when she is 8 years old. We meet Orsola (and the people she cares about) again and again over the next five centuries - they seem to only be slowly ageing in a time bubble that seems to be singular to Venice. At first I was not sure what this time-travelling would bring to the table, but, wow, it does work!
Chevalier still masters that breathtaking sense-of-scene that she so excels at. The sights and sounds of Venice and Murano and the lagoon, the wealth and poverty, loves and losses, glass furnaces and bawdy inns, the calle and canals will transport the reader into this colourful world.
A passionate declaration of love to Venice!

A fascinating book. I have recently visited a Bavarian glassmaking centre so could appreciate much of the description of design and process and its authenticity based on the author's very extensive research. But I wasn't quite as gripped by the Russo family saga as I had hoped to be and found the conceit of stretching time a bit irritating, although it did allow for a satisfying ending. For me the characters were somewhat two dimensional and plot driven. If I hadn’t been interested in glassmaking and very fond of Venice I would have been very disappointed as I have much enjoyed her previous books,
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Tracy Chevalier transports us to Venice, specifically the island of Murano. It’s 1486, the height of the Italian Renaissance and the novel introduces us to Orsola Rosso at the age of nine, her family are glassmakers whose greatest rivals are the Barovier’s who are at the forefront of new glass designs. In 1494 disaster strikes the Rosso’s when Lorenzo, the patriarch, is killed in a work room incident and the business faces ruin.
With advice from Maria, the Barovier matriarch, a change of direction is needed, that of glass beads. Beads that Orsola can make and what’s more, they’re currently in demand and so she learns the art.The novel follows Orsola, her family and glassmaking through time. Will the Rosso family, especially the volatile brother Marco, ever give Orsola the credit she deserves?

Venice, Murano, glassmaking and the skill of Tracy Chevalier, I think we’re onto a winner.
The author captures the unique atmosphere of Venice and although I’ve been to Murano and indeed own some of its glass, I’ve never thought much about its history which the author makes really interesting as it’s personalised via Orsola and the Rosso family. What happens to glass making mirrors the ups and downs of Venice itself and are witnesses to its changes through time. I enjoy the focus on beads which women such as Orsola have an important role to play.

The most creative aspect of the novel is how the author magically plays with time and gets me to buy into it. The idea of skipping stones, time and those in and on Murano aging differently to terra firma is wonderful and the historical context is excellent. As ever Tracy Chevalier extensively researches and I love the inclusion of real characters such as Giacomo Casanova and Josephine Bonaparte.

Orsola is an interesting and complex character, she is definitely an intriguing personality and I admire her resilience as she endures various losses. I don’t think she resonates as much with me as Violet Speedwell in the novel A Single Thread but her portrayal is none the less excellent. The novel is full of vibrant characters who bring colour to the pages.

The novel is without doubt beautifully written with close attention to historical detail bringing this glass making saga across time alive. There’s some wonderful symbolism scattered throughout, especially of dolphins which I love and that is used so well in the final twist of the storytelling. It’s original, different and transporting which is par for the course with this gifted writer.

What I didn’t like is the regular interspersing of Italian words and phrases. I know some Italian and it is easy to work out the words I don’t know but still, it doesn’t seem necessary to me!

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HarperCollins, HarperFiction, The Borough Press for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I usually love a Tracy Chevalier book but this one has me umming and ahhing. I think my first problem was that I thought I had read it before, after a lot of digging I think the book I read was 'The Glassblower of Murano' - nothing special but it had gone over the history of glass, Venice and the plague so I was not learning anything new.

My second issue was the weird time jumps - how can all of those that she love or interact with not age like everyone else, does no one notice? Can she sell the secret to some beauty cream manufacturer - she could provide the lovely glass jars.

My third issue was the ramming home of the plague/COVID similarity. Before I realised that there were going to be time jumps I read the plague section and thought 'yes, I know how you feel, locked in your house, desperate for human interaction'. I mulled upon this and carried on reading. Then when the odd time stuff happened I thought 'I know where you are going with this - COVID'. I then spent the rest of the book waiting for no one's favourite pandemic to bash it's way into the plot. Perhaps it is all too soon, perhaps as a way of dealing with trauma I just don't want to relive COVID, but because of the publishing cycle the miserable virus is featuring in so many books at the moment and all I can glean from them was that it was a pretty miserable time for everyone.

Ah Chevalier, it's been too long.
How lovely to have you back!
An engaging look at the lives/history of muranese glassmakers, that I knew nothing about. For that, I feel I've learnt something.
Full of excellent characters, and realistic struggles.
This book covers a lot, with its interesting use of time.
Really enjoyable, though I felt the ending was speedy.
Didn't stop me enjoying the whole thing though.
Excellent stuff.

Wow! What a book.
I love Chevalier's historical fiction, especially the ones that recentre facts around strong female characters. The absolute joy of this book was that our main character didn't have to become superhuman/break moulds completely but was revolutionary in the way that she did everything by being completely faithful to the times lived in and the industry she worked in.

This book has a fabulous sense of place, you definitely walk/boat around Murano and Venice with Orsola and her family - the sights, sounds and smells are beautifully evoked and if I shut my eyes the book lived in my imagination.

I very much liked the device Chevalier used to move time forward, it meant that great swathes of history could be moved through without having to also get to grips with a whole new cast and then also it showed how timeless the glass industry and Venice are.

Definitely one of my top reads of the year,

Based on the story of a family of glassmakers on the island of Murano, just a short journey by gondola from bustling, extravagant Venice, Tracy Chevalier is nothing if not ambitious in the scope of her latest novel, ‘The Glassmaker’. Using the image of a bouncing, skimming stone over water, she asks us to imagine that every time the stone touches down, the narrative moves forward in time. In this way she covers hundreds of years as she details life on Murano, the changing fashions of the glassware, and the ways in which external events influence an artisanal way of life.
However, whilst the centuries move on, the Rosso family age only slightly so that we remain with the same central characters whether it be 1486 or 1786. As Chevalier muses in her prologue, ‘How would you know if all the clocks in one place moved at a different speed from elsewhere? Or if the artisans of the City of water and the Island of Glass seem to be ageing more slowly that the world beyond?’
‘The Glassmaker’ is likely to interest those who are interested to view the history of Venice from a singular perspective, through the eyes of a working class family. The author’s depiction of the plague years is vivid and terrifying, not just in the description of the masked plague doctor and the horrific buboes but in the fear and utter hopelessness of the situation. Of course, the Rosso family situation resonates with experience of our most recent viral epidemic: isolation, harsh edicts, rudimentary goodbyes, experimental medication seem to be part of the plague experience in any era.
Nevertheless, overall, this novel did not grip me in the way that some of Chevalier’s past works have done. The ‘time machine’ device got in the way of the depiction and development of character. For example, Orsola Rosso clearly does grow older over time but I was not convinced that she was a woman shaped by the time in which she lived as each iteration was introduced.
My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I loved this book so much I don’t think a review could do it justice. Venice truly came alive in its pages and Orsola’s story gripped me more than I would have imagined possible. I loved the way that the author played with time, hundreds of years passing for the world but only a few for the key players in the story. The relationships were so keenly drawn and so believable. I feel bereft now it’s finished.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
I have read almost all of Tracy Chevalier’s novels and loved each onebut this one is one of my favourites. It is set around Murano in Italy and as with many of her books focuses on a craft, this time glassmaking. Having recently taken part in glassmaking sessions and created blown glass objects I could really relate to her descriptions of the glass workshops.
She has used an interesting idea here of writing the story over 6 centuries but remaining focused on the same characters. She simply moves them forward in time; through this technique we are able to see all the changes which occurred in Murano we see the impact of the Plague, the importance of Venice as a trading port, the arrival of the Austrians and then Napoleon. We see the impact of the First World War on the family and on glassmaking and then finally we are brought forward to the effects of Covid.
We meet Orsola, the main character, when she is a young girl. She is pushed into the water by her brother and her mother sends her into the glass workshop of one of their rivals. She is ostensibly there to dry off but she is also instructed to find out as much as she can while she is there. She encounters a female bead maker who is to have a profound effect upon her life.
This is a stunning novel and one which I did not want to put down. I wanted to put everything else on hold whilst I immersed myself in the life of the glassmakers. I truly felt as if I had travelled through time and encountered all of these characters. Remarkable!
I will be recommending this book to everyone at my various book groups. I would like to thank Tracy Chevalier, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Tracy Chevalier's "The Glassmaker" is like a time-traveling adventure that pulls you into the world of the Rosso family, a clan of glassmakers in 15th-century Venice. Chevalier presents a brilliant portrait of a woman, a family, and a city bound together by their shared passion for glass. 


Orsola Rosso, the eldest daughter, is a force to be reckoned with. She's determined to keep her family's glassmaking legacy alive, despite the challenges she faces as a woman in a male-dominated craft. Throughout the many years, she emerges as a maestra in her own right, carving out a space for herself amidst tradition and innovation as well as the urge for survival. But at its core, this book is all about family. You'll get to know the Rossos inside out—each generation facing its own set of challenges and victories.


What sets this novel apart is Chevalier's ingenious concept of "glass time," a magical element that allows the narrative to span centuries effortlessly. This clever twist adds a fascinating dimension to the story, offering glimpses into different eras and the evolving art of glassmaking.


And how about Chevalier's writing? It's like she's painting with words, describing the colours, the craft, and the whole shebang of glassmaking. Apparently, the topic of glassmaking was suggested to the author by one of her readers, and rightfully so. Chevalier's meticulous research and vivid prose bring the world of glassmaking to life, offering readers a glimpse into the intricate process and artistry involved. Much like her acclaimed work "Girl with a Pearl Earring," Chevalier's descriptions are detailed and immersive, making the reader feel as though they are witnessing the creation of glass art firsthand.

Reading "The Glassmaker" was a sensory experience unlike any other. Chevalier's descriptions were so vivid that I found myself reaching for a necklace I had purchased years ago in Venice, yearning to feel the Murano glass once more.

So, if you're up for a ride through time, filled with family drama, artistic flair, and a touch of magic, you should definitely read “The Glassmaker”.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book.

Hmmm - I have enjoyed all of Tracy Chevalier’s earlier novels and I think she is an amazing author but for me the time-travel aspect of this book just didn’t work. The story of Orsola and her family in Murano is captivating and the glass-making tradition is explained beautifully. The writing is beautiful and the characters leap off the page - I just don’t feel that the leaps forward in time are necessary and the fact that the main characters only age by 9 or 10 years when the rest of the world is moving forward by decades jars with me. All in all a strange book which sadly did not meet my expectations.

'The City of Water runs by it's own clock' and so we meet the marvellous Orsola Rosso in Renaissance Murano, and follow her and her Rosso family 's lives, into the modern era via plague (and later COVID) , love, loss, wars, heartbreak and of course glass-making. This is a glittering treasure of a book. A love letter to a place and to being creative and how both make time seem to stand slow down. Tracy Chevalier writes with brilliance and skill creating a richly described immersive world. There are a lot of characters and time shifts which in another writer's hands would be overwhelming or confusing, but in Chevalier's it creates an interconnected story of Venice from past to present told through the prism of one family of glassmakers.

Another wonderful Tracy Chevalier novel so beautifully written.Her characters Venice glasswork,time travel all combine to make a mesmerizing read.#netgalley #harperuk

A classic Chevalier weaving meticulous research with an epic tale of love and loss set in Venice, where the use of time travel seamlessly suits the magic of the lagoon city.

1486, Venice and a beautifully woven tale of a family of glass makers living on the island of Murano, where the most famous glass of the time was produced.. Orsola is born into the Rossi family, who live and work there, the men working with glass, while women do everything else, not even allowed in the same room where the glass is handled, But Orsola is different, she will keep the family alive through the years, as they face all the twists and turns of the centuries. Time is skipped, like a stone over water, stopping at various points in history, with the residents of. Murano aging differently to the rest of terra ferma. We learn all about how glass was made, how fashions for it change and the magic of Murano itself. A complex family dynamic that subtly changes over the years, as the Islanders age slowly and differently to the rest of the world.
A fascinating study of the eras the family lives through, with a love story that also lasts over the centuries. I loved the final twist of the story, but my only criticism would be that the final ‘skip’ felt a bit rushed, but what an amazing read, from a unique perspective. Highly recommended. 4 1/2⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.