The Glassmaker: A Novel

Written by Tracy Chevalier

Narrated by Lisa Flanagan

Named a Best Historical Novel of 2024 by The Sunday Times, The Independent, and BookPage

“The Glassmaker is as finely wrought as a dazzling Murano bead. . . . Chevalier reaffirms her status as one of the reigning queens of historical fiction.” —The Independent

“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, author of Horse

From the bestselling historical novelist, a rich, transporting story that follows a family of glassmakers from the height of Renaissance-era Italy to the present day.

It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers on 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 glass 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.

Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is spellbinding: a mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city as everlasting as their glass.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Jun 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9780593908808

Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier is the author of the New York Times bestsellers At the Edge of the Orchard and Girl with a Pearl Earring, among others. She lives in London.  

Reviews for The Glassmaker

[Mary Ann Naughton · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Liked the descriptions of the different eras. Otherwise, it was just ok

[wilanasmidt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A unique historical novel spanning six centuries, centered on the women of Murano’s glassblowing dynasties—long denied the right to create. Through seamless time jumps from the 15th to the 21st century, the story follows one family’s legacy of artistry, resilience, and passion. Exceptional writing and beautifully realized characters—bellissimo!

[shazjhb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A historical novel set in Venice focused on glass production. The best part of the story is how the main characters in the book just continue while the years change. Very unique way of presenting a historical novel. Instead of split time lines.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For all that I love character-driven fiction, and reading about Venice and Murano, I found Tracy Chevalier's novel painfully 'cosi cosi', as 'Arsola' might say.

My main issues were the time-jumps and Orsola herself, who is like an immortal Fanny Price, hence my nickname for her. I totally understand the device of using the same family throughout history, from the fifteenth century to the modern day (Covid makes a cameo), but apart from being wholly implausible, obviously - Orsola has memories of meeting Casanova and Josephine while she's running a gift shop in 2020 - there was also no chance of getting rid of Orsola and moving onto another, more interesting generation of the Rosso family. I did like some of the supporting women characters, but Orsola remains inescapable unfortunately, moping after the memory of the man she chose to let go.

Almost a DNF, and I rarely do that, but readable in the end, and the history of Venice and Murano is truly fascinating and brought to life by the author.

[hccpsk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier begins in the 15th century on the famous island of Murano where the Rosso family is one of the smaller families known worldwide for making beautiful glass. Orsola Rosso grows up knowing her place in the family, but dreams of more and works to find a way to make that happen. Here’s the catch — Chevalier begins jumping ahead in time to explore the changes in Murano and the world, but keeps Orsola, her family, and her friends as the main characters. It’s an interesting structure that ultimately depends on the reader’s ability to embrace it, and this reader didn’t really buy in. For me, the timeline caused too many discrepancies and odd moments that made no sense, and at times the story dragged. Chevalier still writes a good story and readers who like her, historical fiction, are interested in glass-making, and can let go of the timeline oddities will still enjoy The Glassmaker.

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting tale about glassmaking in Murano. It follows the Rosso Family through the centuries as they age more slowly than the world around them.

[maryreinert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really good historical fiction with a slight twist. The opening chapters take place in Murano in 1400's. Orsola Rosso is a young girl falling into one of the lagoons. Her family are glassmakers with the father being a Meastro. However, due to an unfortunate accident, he is killed and the oldest son, Marco attempts to take over. Orsola and Marco are like oil and water.

The story moves along as Orsola grows and in order to make money begins to make beads (the work called lampwork as opposed to the huge hot ovens that are used for other glass items). Marco looks down on beadwork.

Here the book takes a twist as if a stone is skipping over water and the story moves to the next century but Orsola and her family barely changing. There are other changes in the creating and marketing of glass, the family grows as the brothers take wives, the family dynamics change.

The stone skips more times until finally we see Venice in contemporary times The entire story covers the changes in Venice and Murano, the changes in the importance and type of glass, and the changes in the world in general. A really clever way of spanning time.

I learned a lot about glass making and the story took me back to my visit to Venice. Loved it.

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tracy Chevalier was one of the authors who impelled me to read historical fiction and I have read all her novels. The Glassmaker is set on the island of Murano and follows the Rosso family of glassmakers, skipping across time from 1486 to the present. It is an unusual and inventive way of storytelling and takes some suspension of belief but, as always, Chevalier’s storytelling is impelling.

Orsola Rosso was a rare female working in glass, albeit to make beads–what her glassmaker brother sneeringly calls escrementi di topo–mouse turds. The family has made art glass for generations, gorgeous drinking glasses and pitchers and plates. The family’s fortunes rise and fall as politics and taste changes, forcing them to change their products, but in hard times, the beads kept the family fed.

From making art glass pieces to the mass production of the beads favored by natives abroad, and later used for fashion, the entire process and history of glassmaking is central to the book.

To keep the secrets of glassmaking, Murano glassmakers protected their secrets by outlawing leaving the island for ‘terrafirma’. When European countries developed their own glassmaking the competition impacted the Murano glassworkers. Napoleon’s conquests in Italy meant he could gift Venice to Austria, who modernized the city by filling in canals and building roads. Trading in Africa and the New World drove a demand for glass beads for trade; manufacturing became about quantity not quality. And later tourism brought demands for cheap knockoffs from China.

The plague in 1574 brought losses and suffering to the Rossos. Then, in 2019, Covid afflicts the population, reminding us that there is nothing new under the sun.

Orsolo is friends with an enslaved African gondolier who works for the Austrian who buys her work to sell abroad. “Slavery runs the world,” he reminds her, “Commerce turns because of human sweat, much of it unpaid.”

Always prone to floods, with climate change flooding in Venice becomes worse.

The author compares her storytelling to a stone skipping across the water; she skips across time, keeping the same characters, showing how Orsolo and the Rossos adapt.

Thanks to the publisher for a galley through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

[kimkimkim-7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Whenever I see a new book by Tracy Chevalier it goes on my list to be read. And then I procrastinate because life gets in the way. If you are going to read her you need to make a commitment because her writing and research is just that good. The Glassmaker is better than good. I admired her stone skimming device to cover the eras of the Rosso family and the evolution and perhaps devolution of this Murano glass making family. While treating the time line so vicariously may be a stretch, I was able to minimize my disbelief and continue with the story.

From 1486 when Venice is known as the trade center of “Europe and much of the rest of the word” to the Pandemic of the twenty-first century, the story is told by Orsola Rosso, a woman who would not be held back by her gender. All the major events of the five hundred years between the Renaissance and our modern day Pandemic have a moment in the story in relation to the Murano glass makers.

Chevalier’s books are not fast reading, nor should they be. Besides the attention to history, her characters and setting are so well described and imbued with emotion and honesty that it takes time to parse and reflect and sometimes to put your heartbreak in check.

My thanks to Viking/Penguin Random House for a copy of The Glassmaker.

[nicole_a_davis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A really intimate look at the tradition of glassmaking on Murano island. The author played with time in an interesting way that confused me at first but ultimately it worked for this story, allowing the reader to stay connected to a set of characters while spanning hundreds of years of history.