This is such a heartbreaking story, but there are some beautifully heartwarming parts throughout the story.

The plague is rife and loss is a heavy theme throughout this book. The relationships formed and lost due to being infected with the plague is so Interesting. How some of a community can turn against you when you are not well and some can show up for the infected.

I absolutely love glass because and I feel as though the teachings of glass making throughout this story is so good I felt like I learn from it too. The description of the glass making is fascinating.

Times have changed a lot since this time but it's still quite shocking to know that things made by a man were worth more than things made by a woman and it was frowned upon for a woman to be making her own way in the world. Orsola really feels this throughout her life and makes beads in secret when her father passed away to help out.

She's such a great character, she teaches herself how to make beads and I love it.

Oh the end was so sad but also so heartwarming. I loved how the story went from 1400's to 2000's, nothing feels rushed but goes through a piece of history relating to glass makers and how they've dealt with starting businesses, getting the plague, wars and more recently going through various lockdowns. I found it so well explained and written.

This book is inspiring and enticing and I couldn't stop listening. I listened at every opportunity and I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

Ursula Rosso is the daughter of a regarded Murano glass making family. When she challenges the norm by learning how to make glass like her brothers (albeit in secret), she begins a journey which spans many centuries and most of Italy's key events.

Watching Ursula as she (and those she loves) are kept timeless in their Muruna and Venetian time bubble we see how historical characters such as Casanova and significant events including the plague, both World Wars, the flooding of 2019 and Covid, impact her livelihood and family.

A perfect mix of historical fiction and romance, the Glassmaker is engaging and moving.

Steeping away from my usual genres of choice, I found myself basking in the beauty of Chevalier’s writing about Murano glass and bead-making, something I knew nothing about. We follow Orsolo Rosso’s family life and how it develops on Murano while time moves in great leaps away from the island. This inventive way of moving time forward means we can view history and all its effects and similarities from the Great Plague to the Covid outbreak. I’m so entranced, I’ll be heading to Chevalier’s backlist soon.
I must note that the narrator's skill was impeccable and added to my enjoyment..
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own unbiased opinion.

The Glassmaker is destined to become one of my books of the year. Starting in 1486 we are told the story of the Orsola Rosso, the daughter of a glassmaker on the island of Murano. The island and its inhabitants are subject to their own rules of time so we can skip forward for example from 1494 to 1574 with the characters only aging by a couple of years. With this clever device the author is able to move through the history of Venice and Murano and their wars, plagues ,trade wars, tourism, Covid and floods that effect the area due to changes in the climate. It is a story of family and love but also of how history has affected the people and trade within this area. I felt that I have learnt so much about glassmaking and the history of the Venice but it never felt forced or overwhelming. The audio book was stunningly narrated by Juliet Aubrey who truly brought the book to life. A wonderful book that I will take pleasure in re-reading in the future. Many thanks to NetGalley, and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in return for a honest review.

I was really excited to listen to The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier.

It was a fascinating book, so well researched and the glassmaking was so interesting.

That said, it took me a while to listen to the audiobook. I think I would have benefited from reading the book to keep track of the dual timelines.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, HarperCollins UK Audio, for making this e-audio-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This novel is TripFiction's Book of the Month October 2024

This is such a uniquely structured novel. offering a potted overview of the history of Venice, highlighting Murano.

The author has used a very interesting construct by making Venice the main character (which, of course, is wonderful for #tripfiction). The story starts in the later 1400s and comes to its conclusion more or less in the present when Covid strikes. The human interest is provided by the Rosso family and specifically Orsola Rosso, who is born into a glass making family on Murano.

The creative device of skimming stones is used to nudge the story along and over several segments we are treated to Orsola’s story, as time skims forward and hops through the centuries. The stone capriciously transports the reader to a new era.

Orsola grows a little older each time, as the centuries fly by, but she is the anchor around which the story of Venice unfolds. Venice, of course, has the reputation for being otherworldly at times, and time, here, is unique to the city and in particularly Murano. Terra Firma, the land beyond the lagoon has a more conventional relationship with the ticking of clock. Strange set-up (it is fiction, after all)? It is, but it works very well.

The story starts back in the later 15th Century as the Rosso family establishes a reputation for glass making. Orsola has a desire to make her own mark – at the very least to help build the family coffers – but the guilds do not allow women to work with glass. She finds another woman to mentor her and she takes up the craft of bead making which she can do with a lamp and tallow and soon she has established a market for her pieces through a German trader, who has an established business in Venice.

As the years move on, we witness Venice through periods of plague, the advent of the Austrians (who preferred their Venice without canals and therefore filled in several), Napoleon and then the arrival from terra firma of the railways. Industrialisation and motorisation saw the need for the gondola, as a means of actual transport, recede. Today, of course, the gondola caters largely to tourists.

Coming into the present day, Orsola observes the fundamental change of the city and the phenomenon of the tourist circus that can grate with so many, the huge numbers of people visiting starkly overwhelming the local inhabitants and running the gauntlet of Disneyfication. The advent of the large cruise ships that have dominated the skyline for many years and the import of Chinese glass to undermine the local artisanal industry – all these factors force adaptation and change. This is, in essence, a city fighting for its life on a new front.

The Glassmaker is a beautifully told story that is informative and full of colour and life. A real tribute to La Serenissima and the people who have lived there and who have made the city what it is. Very highly recommended.

A stunning story which is made all the more enjoyable by the excellent narration. Tracy Chevalier never disappoints.

To historical fiction lovers this book is a gem. Venice and the surrounding islands, including Murano, will always have a special place in history. This novel is a fitting tribute to the glassmakers of old times, presents their work and traditions in great details through the life of a family. I found the time jumps a bit confusing, but the story itself is captivating and emotional, and the writing is simply beautiful. Juliet Aubrey's performance adds so much to the experience. If you have a chance, go for the audio book.

Three stars from me means I believe the author has achieved their aims and it’s a good book, but I personally did not fall in love with it.

If anyone can pull off a novel in which the characters age at one speed and the world at another, it’s Chevalier. The mechanism she chooses to reveal the time difference is a glass dolphin sent back from terra firma to the main character, first by the man she loves and then his descendants. If you don’t mind an otherwise independent woman yearning for her lost love for hundreds of years, you’ll be able to love this book, with its wonderful descriptions of glassmaking and the landscape of Venice and Murano.

It really is quite extraordinary.

Three word review: innovative dual timeline.

I loved this extremely gentle family story with a hint of magical realism. It's taken me a very long time to finish because it felt right to listen to it slowly and I'm so glad I did. When all the threads find eachother late in the book, I found the resolutions equally sad and moving. It's an exceptionally written book with great characterisation and a romance for Venice and Romano that caught me even though they aren't places that are special to me. The audiobook is brilliantly performed and I will definitely seek out other novels by Tracy Chevalier now.

In this captivating story that spans from the 15th century to the present day, we follow the life of Orsola Rosso, daughter of a prominent glassmaker in Murano - Italy. After their father's death, Orsola and her brothers must keep the family business afloat and adapt their craft to the ever changing market.

The dual timeline (not the best term to describe it though) in this story was pure genius. I personally have never read anything like this before.
The book addresses various interesting themes like familial duty and gives an interesting perspective on industrial development / technological advancement and their effects on society (and individuals).
This is an undeniably good book, with a great concept and message, a book that obviously required a lot of research too. In my opinion however, it lacked powerful human connections, the lackluster relationship between Orsola and Antonio (main love interest) for instance, was a big disappointment.

Audiobook : 2.5/5 I feel like the narrator's performance was one of the major factors that made me feel like I had indeed read a story that lasted 700 years.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Audio for providing this copy for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this ARC received from NetGalley which was sent as an audiobook read by Juliet Aubrey. She is an excellent reader with a soothing voice.

The story tells of Orsula, a female glassmaker in Murano, in Venice, but is unusual in that it spans 500 years during which Orsula only ages gradually until she reaches ‘the present’.

The writing style propels the narrative and there is a family saga at its heart. However, the parts I enjoyed most were when the narrative skipped to different points in history and Chevalier gives key moments for us to consider. She does this using a time travelling stone which skims across water. So we visit Orsula in 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th and 21st centuries during which time she continues to make glass, as she has always done, despite events, including revolutions and wars, and despite the advance in technology.

Recommended.

A fascinating trip through 500 years of Muranese and Venetian history, through the eyes of one Muranese glass maker.
Chevallier employs a clever fictional device to make this story work, allowing time to run at a different pace for Orsola Rosso and those closest to her, compared to the rest of the world.
If you’ve been lucky enough to visit Venice, Murano and it’s glass workshops, and Burano, it’s easy to envisage Orsola with her friends and family, building their lives and businesses as the years pass.
Beautifully researched, this story illustrates how Venice has evolved and why time always seems to run a little slower in La Serenissima - the eternal city.
And long may it continue to do so.
Five stars from me for Tracy Chevalier’s entrancing new novel, and a big thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK audio for the chance to listen to an ARC, beautifully narrated by Juliet Aubrey.

I’m not sure how to review this but I will try. On one hand I absolutely loved this. The writing and prose were enchanting and the characters were incredibly well developed. The level of detail into the lives of glassmakers was amazing! The plot follows the Rosso family, a family of glassmakers in Venice 1486. It’s a character based plot, spanning generations and how they live throughout time. The story sucks you into the family’s life through the high and lows of Venice history.

This is where things get confusing, the timeline?? I liked it, but I didn’t? We start the story in 1486 but ends in present day with the same family. Now obviously that’s not physically possible but I do understand the point was to show the characters and how they adapt to an ever changing world. However the characters stay the same and the POV is the same main character throughout (obviously not realistic in any way) and I felt it took me out of the story a little. The traditional way to do this type of story would be to change POV’s down the family line but, with such a large timeline the character development would be impossible to keep up.

That being said it did work strangely well (after a small period of me being very confused). I think this goes to show how incredible writing can really hold a story together, if this was a badly written book the whole thing would fall apart but, it somehow didn’t. I’m still on the fence about the timeline, part of me loved it and part of me hated it.

Overall it was an enchanting, gripping historical fiction with a mind blowing amount of detail. If you can get past the timeline then it’s an incredible read! Full of family, hardship and love.

I loved the interesting narrative form in this book! The characters skipped along a timeline "like pebbles skimming the water" so we follow Orsola's life against the backdrop of Venetian history. Having just visited Murano and the lagoon, I found the setting to be gloriously evocative and enjoyed learning some context.

I probably should say, I’m already a huge fan of Tracy Chevalier, having read many of her books and find her writing style immediately, comforting and lyrical enough to ease me comfortably into the time period, that she takes me too.
Love the time period, love glass blowing, love this book.
For the most part the details of the glass workshop are correct (use of punty for the blowing iron was a bit grinding) and the time shifts were a little disorienting but the pace, story, details and engaging characters combine to give it heft.
The narrator was excellent- I think I’ll listen again next weekend!

An exquisitely penned story set in stunning Murano Italy in the 1400s. The story follows Orsola, the daughter of a Murano glassmaker, as she attempts to undertake breadmaking in the world of glass dominated by men. The narrative follows ordinary time for much of Orsola's youth, taking her through the time of Plague, then we see her age only a few years, but time has jumped on by decades. chevalier plays with time using the analogy of a skimming stone jumping across the surface of water. It allows us the opportunity to watch the women of the family adapt to the changing outside world, with visits from the infamous Casanova, the introduction of the novel, world war, travel and the influx of tourism, the Covid pandemic, and much more all impacting the family. Written in such beautiful language, this book is a joy to read. The audiobook version captures this beauty with Juliet Aubrey capturing the voice and heart of the family..#theglassmaker #tracychevalier #netgalley #audiobook

Thank you to net galley and the author for providing me with a copy of The Glassmaker. This book was different to my usual reads and I originally picked it up as it was in the fantasy section however I would say it is mostly historical fiction with a slight fantasy twist. Despite this, this book was very much worth reading. I loved that it followed the same character and her family and friends throughout the history of Murano glass making and through many important historical events spanning 500 years.

The writing style and narration was excellent and beautifully executed, really engaging and vivid. I loved that the book included the social changes and the role of women across the years and the range in views of Orsola compared to other characters, providing a story rich in emotion and important messages throughout.

Although we don’t get a huge level of detail in some centuries I think this worked perfectly to condense and highlight the more important parts of the history of glass in a really understandable and enjoyable way which I found to be much more palatable for those with less knowledge on this topic (me).

Really interesting and beautifully written and narrated story - definitely worth reading for those who enjoy historical fiction and who are looking for something a bit different.

At 14 hours and 22 minutes long, this audiobook is a commitment. However when you consider it covers 500 years of history, it doesn’t seem that long at all.

Tracy Chevalier has written a history of Venice, Murano and the craft of glassmaking, starting in 1486 and ending in the present day. She has played with time and slowed it down for her characters; we see all five centuries through the eyes of Orsola Rosso and her family and friends.

It is impeccably researched and we are able to see the impact major historical, political and natural events have had on Venice and the development of glassmaking. It is a fascinating insight, with appearances from a few real life historical figures, which I always enjoy.

Orsola Rosso is a fantastic character. A woman determined to make her way in a man’s world but a woman who is loyal to her family and the traditions of her ancestors. Although her story is not always a happy one, it is one of determination and accomplishment.

I loved being immersed in the bubble of Murano and Venice; imagining myself taking a gondola ride and treating myself to some Rosso beads. This book reads like a love letter to the unique city of islands - a truly wonderful and magical read.

Strange time-slip idea but a great historical novel.

I didn't understand why Chevalier has her protagonist and family move through the centuries barely ageing, continuing their story and work but through multiple centuries.

Okay, so the glassmaker got to interact with famous historical figures, but I thought the story held up on its own as a period piece without this strange fantastical element, which was also a little confusing.

Orsola is born into a glassmaking family in the 1400s, on the island of Murano near Venice. Her whole family and existence are destined for this occupation, with Orsola herself taking on the task of bead making after her father's early death, and the brother now in charge very condescending about her money-making work.

The story then follows the adolescent Orsola through the horrific Plague times, with death and starvation risked each day, out through the other side to a love affair that then leads Orsola and her family to their various possible futures.

We see the growth and prosperity through the story of not just one life and family but the glass-making industry in Venice, which is one thing the longevity of the plot allows for, the societal changes over time. Women play roles that grow in importance, both economically and culturally.

I didn't think I would be as taken with this as I was, though I really didn't like the time-slip scenario. I felt for Orsola, I enjoyed her meeting certain historical personages (no spoilers here) and learning a lot about her intimate glass work and the importance of it to trade and tourism.

Fascinating story. An enjoyable audiobook to follow.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.