FROM THE GLOBALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
'A triumph… a brilliant idea carried out with confidence and brio and a deep love of an extraordinary city. The ingenuity of the time-skipping is beyond admiration' PHILIP PULLMAN'Spellbinding…. Chevalier at her fabulous best. A rich, vivid and gently enchanting novel' ELIF SHAFAK
Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to handle.
Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime.
Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.
The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?
Tracy Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is vivid, inventive, spellbinding: a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.
Genre: Historical
Praise for this book
"Chevalier, one of our great storytellers, brings us unexpected worlds: Venice and Murano, artisans and empresses, compelling us through six fascinating centuries, with one irresistible family, weaving stories that captivate and transport the reader." - Amy Bloom
"This charming fable is at once a love story that skips through six centuries, and also a love song to the timeless craft of glassmaking. Chevalier probes the fierce rivalries and enduring loyalties of Murano's glass dynasties, capturing the roar of the furnace, the sweat on the skin, and the glittering beauty of Venetian glass." - Geraldine Brooks
"A richly-drawn tale about loyalty and heartbreak, as well as a love letter to the craftsmen--and women--who created exquisite treasures that endure through the ages. A stunning achievement. I couldn't put it down." - Fiona Davis
"Tracy Chevalier returns to the world of medieval craft and gives us another determined heroine--a Venetian glassmaker who penetrates the closed world of the men of Murano. Meticulously researched and evoking the beauty of the Venice lagoon, the story challenges and transports the reader through time and place." - Philippa Gregory
"In the Venice of The Glassmaker, time moves differently, with hundreds of years passing in the blink of an eye....When one has the chance to live for centuries, love and loss seem to cut more deeply, and the winds of change never stop blowing, which means that the ground is constantly shifting beneath the feet of Chevalier's perfectly drawn characters. Inspiring, heartbreaking, and magical, The Glassmaker is an inventive and extraordinary feat and an epic for the ages." - Kristin Harmel
"A triumph... a brilliant idea carried out with confidence and brio and a deep love of an extraordinary city. The ingenuity of the time-skipping is beyond admiration." - Philip Pullman
"Tracy Chevalier pens a novel as ambitious, audacious, and artistic as a Venetian glass goblet. Beginning in the height of the Renaissance and hopscotching with casual ease through the centuries to the modern day, she examines the ever-changing city of Venice through the eyes of Orsola Rosso, defiantly gifted daughter of a Murano glassmaking family, and how her unique gift with glass shines through time, fragile but unbreakable. The Glassmaker is a thing of beauty." - Kate Quinn
"Spellbinding... Chevalier at her fabulous best. A rich, vivid and gently enchanting novel." - Elif Shafak
"This charming fable is at once a love story that skips through six centuries, and also a love song to the timeless craft of glassmaking. Chevalier probes the fierce rivalries and enduring loyalties of Murano's glass dynasties, capturing the roar of the furnace, the sweat on the skin, and the glittering beauty of Venetian glass." - Geraldine Brooks
"A richly-drawn tale about loyalty and heartbreak, as well as a love letter to the craftsmen--and women--who created exquisite treasures that endure through the ages. A stunning achievement. I couldn't put it down." - Fiona Davis
"Tracy Chevalier returns to the world of medieval craft and gives us another determined heroine--a Venetian glassmaker who penetrates the closed world of the men of Murano. Meticulously researched and evoking the beauty of the Venice lagoon, the story challenges and transports the reader through time and place." - Philippa Gregory
"In the Venice of The Glassmaker, time moves differently, with hundreds of years passing in the blink of an eye....When one has the chance to live for centuries, love and loss seem to cut more deeply, and the winds of change never stop blowing, which means that the ground is constantly shifting beneath the feet of Chevalier's perfectly drawn characters. Inspiring, heartbreaking, and magical, The Glassmaker is an inventive and extraordinary feat and an epic for the ages." - Kristin Harmel
"A triumph... a brilliant idea carried out with confidence and brio and a deep love of an extraordinary city. The ingenuity of the time-skipping is beyond admiration." - Philip Pullman
"Tracy Chevalier pens a novel as ambitious, audacious, and artistic as a Venetian glass goblet. Beginning in the height of the Renaissance and hopscotching with casual ease through the centuries to the modern day, she examines the ever-changing city of Venice through the eyes of Orsola Rosso, defiantly gifted daughter of a Murano glassmaking family, and how her unique gift with glass shines through time, fragile but unbreakable. The Glassmaker is a thing of beauty." - Kate Quinn
"Spellbinding... Chevalier at her fabulous best. A rich, vivid and gently enchanting novel." - Elif Shafak
Visitors also looked at these books