#BookReview: The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier @Tracy_Chevalier @BoroughPress @IndieThinking #TheGlassmaker #TracyChevalier #HistoricalFiction

Book Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

The Glassmaker is an epic, sweeping and absorbing piece of historical fiction which I thoroughly enjoyed.  

I’ve always been a huge fan of reading about strong women so I found it fascinating to follow Orsola Rosso throughout the centuries.  I really admired her for trying to make her mark in a time where glass making was very much a male dominated industry and I loved that she found such a creative way to help her family, which was different from what other people were producing at the time.  It was especially nice to see the women of the novel work together to help each other, rather than being in competition with each other.  They all seemed to want to boost female involvement in the glass industry which was heart warming to see.

This book has a slightly different style to it as time moves on in the book without the characters getting much older which confused me when it first happened. It was so nice to spend so much time with the Rosso family and learn more about the history of Venice.  The history of glassmaking was particularly fascinating to learn more about, especially how the glass products differed throughout the years.  I don’t think I’ve ever fully appreciated the work that goes into glassmaking but, after reading this book I don’t think I’ll look at a glass product the same way again.  

I thought this book had a great pace to it and there always seemed to be something happening to keep my interest, though even in the quieter moments I was just happy hanging out with the wonderful Rosso family.  There were some moments that made me cry, some that made me laugh and some that had me cheering for the characters.  I listened to this on audiobook and it was great to hear the narrator speak the Italian which I wouldn’t have been able to do if I’d just read it.  It was quite a long audiobook but it just seemed to fly by and it helped make my walking challenge much easier to complete as I planned longer walks so I could listen to more of it.  

Huge thanks to Borough Press and Indie Thinking for my copy of this book. Highly recommended by me.

About The Author:

Tracy is the author of 11 novels, including the international bestseller GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, which has sold over 5 million copies and been made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. American by birth, British by geography, she lives in London and Dorset. Her latest novel, THE GLASSMAKER, is set in Venice and follows a family of glass masters over the course of 5 centuries.