Historical fiction about glassblowers

The Glassmaker ~ by Tracy Chevalier, 2024, historical fiction (Venice), 416 pages

This story 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.

"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

Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glass Maker is as inventive as it is spellbinding:  a mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city as everlasting as their glass.  Named a Best Historical Novel of 2024 by The Sunday Times, The Independent, and BookPage.

1. On Monday, I wrote about weird things said in bookstores, HERE.
2. On TWOsday, my book was about the etiquette of calling and the etiquette of visiting during the late 1800s, HERE.
3. Wednesday's Word was "morality" with a book about people being moral animals, HERE.
4. My Thursday Thoughts were about a book for our Crown Center library, HERE.
5. On Friday, my book beginnings choice was Relative Strangers by A. H. Kim, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted

by Deb at Readerbuzz.