Orsola Rosso is a glass maker in Murano. Its 1486 and women are not expected to make glass so she works in secret perfecting her skills.
Time skips and we follow Orsola and her family through the centuries. Through love, death, sickness, happiness and change.
Will she ever achieve her dreams?

I loved this book and found that the history and cultures of both Venice and Morano absolutely fascinating. The characters that the book takes through the centuries in a magical way was just enthralling. The story begins with Murano and the basics of glassmaking using the Rosso family as our guides. It covers the building of Venice and how it developed from a small island changing ownership to the French, the Austrians and finally back to Italy and the impact on the peoplecaused by the wars and plague. I loved following Orsola who showed strength andhow the role of women changed over the years.The story is well researched , but then Tracy always does her homework well before she writes, I found the growth of glassmaking and how it spread across Europe so informative. All the characters had a place to play in demonstrating life through the centuries and I just loved the blockbuster of a book.
I would unconditionally reccomend this book to all my friends and anyone who likes reading books that make an impact.

Disappointing as I've enjoyed other Chevalier novels. The setting is promising but the characters and story are too predictable - the girl who wants to succeed in a man's world, the tempestuous but talented older brother, the hot apprentice... The story is weighed down by reams of description and exposition. That's before you get to the excessive use of Italian phrases and the whimsical time travel.

I was hoping more for depth and engagement. Murano glassmaking is fascinating in so many ways - as an art form, as technology, as a trade linking Venice to the wider world. Instead there is lots of detail but not much insight - somehow, the magic isn't there.

'...beads brought colour and beauty...There was a pricelessness to these tiny, hard things. They endured, and retained the history of their owners, and their makers'.

It's the 15th Century, Murano, the 'glass island', across the lagoon from Venice is the world's epicentre for fine glass making - a molten tradition that flows through the generations for families who inhabit the place. Orsola Rosso is the young daughter of such a family. With two older brothers who are apprenticed to their maestro father, she has only a fleeting interest in glass making - besides, it is only men's work. However, a tragic accident throws her family into chaos and potential ruin. Desperate to help save her family's business, their legacy, she finds a solution in making glass beads, 'Beads fill the spaces between things. They don't get in the way. They are inconsquential, and women can make them because of that'. Centuries pass, the world changes, Murano changes, Italy is eventually unified as a country, yet Orsola remains true to her craft and loyal to her family, 'The world is running faster, even in Venice. Except for glass and its makers...'.

'The Glassmaker' is such a wonderfully immersive history of Murano glass and its people. Spanning centuries but also, with a dash of magical realism, only a lifetime, the story underscores how things change yet remain the same- such is the circle of life. I have not read anything from Tracy Chevalier before but I was captivated by her evocation of Venice and Murano throughout the centuries. Historical fiction lovers will enjoy this.

'...the beauty of translucence - the clarity and mystery at the same time'.

The descriptions of Venice, Murano, and the glass-blowing were so beautiful and vivid that it took me back to my visit, despite being only 10 years old when I went. I found myself looking up maps and pictures as I was so taken by the descriptions.

I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the book - there is so much I didn't know about the history of Venice.

I did find it a bit difficult keeping track of who all the characters were as the families expanded. I also didn't realise there was a key to the Italian until I got to it at the end! Most of all, I didn't really understand the time jumps. It came together nicely in the end, but I'm not sure this aspect was needed.

This is a book that I probably wouldn't have picked off the shelf, but I'm very happy to have read it. It was really lovely.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I had high expectations from this book and I don't know why because I am not familiar with Tracy Chevalier's work but unfortunately, I got lost on the way or it could be my interest in glassmaking that's almost non existent. The indie edition looks amazing with its sprayed edges so maybe by having it in my own library I'll give it a try again in the future and I could understand the story better.

death is a reminder that you never recover from losing someone; you just learn to accommodate the hole it makes in you.

I didn't expect it that much of a touching and emotional story! I feel heartbroken and labeled it as made me cry. A very fascinating piece of work by Girl with a Pearl Earring author. Tracy Chevalier's newest novel was a beautiful art that I didn't read like that in this genre for a very long time!

There had been the hurt, and then the memory of the hurt, and finally the memory of the memory, which was where she had been stuck for many years,

The story is set –start– in one of Venice's islands in 1486, Orsola Rosso is nine years old and lives on Murano, on this magical place time passes differently. The City of Water runs by its own clock, frozen in time – The boats may have engines now, but time still seems to run at a different speed from the outside world.

Rosso family, a glassmaker family, I lived with them, cried, laughed, got angry, and cursed like them, as kept company them, especially the narrator Orsola throughout life, a long and magical one!

‘Men are unreliable. It’s best not to get too attached.’

Many thanks to HarperCollins UK for giving me a chance via NetGalley to read this mesmerizing book, I have given my honest review.

She’d heard some say God had sent the virus to force people to change their ways, that this was a giant reset button for humanity. If that was the case, Orsola doubted people would indeed change.

I thought this was a very clever read. By keeping the characters the same type of age yet jumping steps in time you kept your identity and affinity with those characters. That then allowed you to look through 500 years of Venetian life and how the city’s fortunes waxed and waned in that time. You were able to observe the seemingly timeless traditions of the glass industry in Murano yet notice how it was forced to change to adapt to circumstance. And of course there was a love story weaved into the narrative that was realistic rather than using a rose tinted or starry eyed perspective. A really enjoyable novel.

With thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
#TheGlassmaker

An intriguing novel that I imagine will have some staying power.

Though the story itself is not necessarily urgent or gripping in a melodramatic way that some historical fiction can be, it had nuance, detail and solid depth coming from it's characters.

This is another form of storytelling that echoes the power of Chevalier's Girl With the Pearl Earring. As the story weaves itself around a range of eras and centuries of history in Vienna, we encounter the same family and their glass making business. Discussing women, heritage and the impact of nurture in relationships across friendship, family and romance, the first half of this novel in particular is somewhat spellbinding - transporting and immersive.
Venice, 1486 - Murano is the mythical and slightly set apart space we encounter Orsola the protagonist. There is a glint in the imagery and elegiac description of this place that gives early implications that this is not quite on the same bandwidth as the rest of Venice.
Orsola is a young girl when we meet her who quickly is inspired to to become the best glassmaker she can be. Orsola works secretively, aiming to perfect her work to sell to the male merchants. But as readers we must watch and wait as her quest unfolds.
There is a facet of magical realism at play, as Orsola does not just begin her creations and end them in 1400's Venice. She becomes a representative everywoman and hones her craft through plague, war, grief, triumph, love and loss for the centuries up to the present day. Despite the bigger metaphor in play, this is a family saga written in an incredibly adept way.

From the outset, there is easy engagement with the protagonist, and her plight to upkeep the success and income needed from the male-dominated glass making. As she figures out the ways in which beads and more unique items can be made and really upsell the products of her family to ensure their success the feminist undertones are undeniably. A further thing to admire about Chevalier's written style however is that this does not become 'preachy' or 'for effect'. The successes despite the odds being against speak out to the myriad of generations of women or girls either in the timespan of the story or the readership.

In truth - a much better first half which sticks to the 1400's and early 1500's of Venice, where Orsola really finds her feet and deals with an abundance of trials that really hone and shape her resolve. The story - especially in it's final third - meanders a little too obliquely and loses some of that 'hutspa' that is a defining feature of it's first sections.

Ultimately a gripping and engrossing read from Chevalier, with beautiful prose as always. Fans of magical realism will particularly connect with this tale, yet it was an experiment in metaphor and time keeping that perhaps lost it's edge for me...
But then I am not a keen purveyor of the magical realism genre and thus found the cause for jumping so unrealistically across centuries with a character who was actually so real in conception a little unnecessary.

I've read and loved many of Tracy Chevalier's books, but I didn't get on with the last one, A Single Thread. I was hoping that was a blip but, unfortunately, not. Whereas I've always found her writing evocative and the characters interesting, the last two have failed to engage. I've found the writing flat with too much factual explanation instead of letting the reader make discoveries through the narrative, leading to uninspiring characters and dull plot. Such a shame, I think she's gone off the boil with her last two.

This book blew me away! The concept is so unusual and I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it really did and I loved it.

Commencing in 1486, Orsola Rosso is the daughter in the male dominated field of glassmaking on Murano, near Venice. We’re told that time works differently in Venice, and so decades and centuries go by in the outside world, while the Rosso family endure. Plague, occupation, wars, depressions……in The Glassmaker is a history of the craft, the city and those who live there. It’s cleverly written, and I will be highly recommending it.

Firstly I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for my free ARC.

This story is told in time alla Veneziana. Pay attention to this as it’s how the story of this glassmaking family is told, skipping a stone across the water of time so that we see them as they would be in different eras because time in Venice and its islands is somehow much slower, the inhabitants ageing more slowly than the rest of the world or terraferma. I enjoyed this unique way of storytelling.

Orsola Rosso is a young girl in a glassmaking family in Venice in 1486. She seems both to society and her family, an insignificant girl. When her father dies suddenly and the incapable Marco takes over the family business, her mother sends her to the only female glassmaker that she knows, Maria Barovia. Under this formidable woman’s mentoring and her cousin Elena’s tutelage, Orsola becomes the woman no one could have suspected, that will save the family. When her true love Antonio is overlooked for servente in the glassmaker hierarchy he decides to leave for terraferma, but it is a crime against Murano to take its glass making secrets to another land. The only way she knows he is still alive, is by the irregular yet reassuring delivery of tiny perfectly formed glass dolphins across time. This love story is present by its absence as the stone skips across the water of time, as we see the family survive plague, scandal, trade restrictions, occupation and more.

This is an enchanting book, compelling and inspiring. The protagonist Orsola is an extremely likeable character, a powerful woman trapped in a time when women were suppressed, but nevertheless enduring and resilient. It is Orsola’s journey that transports the reader to Venice and the island of Murano. This is a magnificent story, right to the final few words, absolutely magical and mesmerising.

I highly recommend The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier.

A brilliant book about a place I love and which I learned much more about over several centuries.
I worried at first that the compressing of time in Murano woul dbe a problem, but it's well done and in fact a very clever device that lets the thread of bead making continue without the need to introduce new characters for each generation. Thorougly recommended.

‘The Glassmaker’ is a beautifully written narrative that focuses on Orsola Rosso and her family of glassmakers residing in Murano (an island neighbouring the far more famous Venice - a place that the Muranese seem to both deplore and need in order to survive). It initially starts in 1486 and Chevalier introduces the stunning metaphor that runs through the whole book: of a stone skimming across the water, only in this instance it skims time. Indeed, it quickly becomes apparent that time works differently on Murano and Orsola picks up the glass trade and learns how to make beads for some of the most illustrious visitors to Venice, including Giacomo Casanova and Josephine Bonaparte.

Spanning centuries, this book deals with the gripping themes of family, identity, love and battling for survival. It also strongly evokes the history of this part of Italy, as well as the craft of glassmaking in a fascinating and often beguiling way. Fans of Tracy Chevalier (like me!) will not be disappointed as her rich prose and wonderfully flawed characters feature strongly in this gripping read. I couldn’t put it down!

A captivating masterpiece of historical fiction, that transported me to the island of Murano in Venice. Beautifully written and imaginative with well developed characters, ambitious plot lines but also with accurate references to history. A lot is packed in and the ending felt a little rushed.

Tracy Chevalier is not an author I have read before, though like many others I was aware of her work through the excellent "Girl With A Pearl Earring" cinema adaptation from 2003 - released four years after the publication of what was her second novel.

"The Glass Maker", her latest offering, is a love story to glass, Venice and it's artisan work place of Murano, covering 500 years, seen through the perspective of a single family, the Rosso's.

Unlike those who have gone before telling tales detailing the history of regions and cities like James Michener or Edward Rutherford where we see the evolution through generations of the same or associated families Ms Chevalier allows the ever changing Rosso household to maintain the same characters throughout the years, whilst around them the rest of the world changes impacted by events such as the Black Death, Napoleon's annexation, the Great War and on to the more recent restrictions and tragedies wrought by Covid.

It's an interesting plot device that I at first struggled with as I'd not seen it coming , but once I'd taken the first skip of the stone (no spoilers but if you do pick up this novel you'll see where I'm coming from), it became an acceptable form of Deux Machina to tell the story that maybe one day will make for another great Movie or Limited Series to stream and enjoy at our leisure.

A lot happens in the telling of the tale, without anything much happening at all, though on the closing page there's a scene that might bring a lump to the odd throat, or a tear to a dust free eye...though if you were to ask me what was the point of it all I'd scratch my head and refer you back to my second paragraph above...but I'd not stop you from grabbing a copy to learn and, as I did, enjoy the read.

A well written novel about glassmaking and one of the many glassmaking families. Step into a world of joy, sorrow and craftsmanship. If you can look past the time warp it truly will keep you hooked, hoping and celebrating with the glassmaker family and their many acquaintances.

I found that I had to ignore the aspect of the book which has people from Murano and Venice living in a time warp. Having put that aside though, "The Glassmaker" is at it's heart a potted history of the islands of the Venice lagoon. The family connections of the Rossos are what pull everything together as we travel through 5 centuries. Orsola Rosso is the main character; she is a girl from a glass-making family on Murano who would like to be a glassmaker herself. We learn how the glass trade changed through time, and the trials and tribulations of those involved.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Such a beautifully written, atmospheric read. I loved the detail, the emotion and the intricacies of each character. I didn’t see the ending coming.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this, in exchange for an honest review.

In this new story from historical fiction author Tracy Chevalier, we follow the Rossos, a family of Murano glassmakers, from the height of Renaissance-era Italy to present day.

Adding a touch of magic to the book, Chevalier has time slow down on the island, so that 500 years on the mainland correspond to about 50 years for our main protagonist, Orsola Rossi. We therefore get to see the history of Murano and Venice through the experience of a single character.

This book was clearly well researched and, having visited Venice and Murano recently, it was a pleasure to read about all the things I had seen. I enjoyed learning more about the glass trade and following the tribulations of the Rossi family. I did however feel as though the pacing was slightly off, with more interesting time periods such as The Plague or Covid given less time.

A recommended read for fans of Tracy Chevalier, Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist, and historical fiction with strong female characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.