5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best book I've read for ages.

N.C. · 16 May 2025

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } Completely spellbinding. When I started reading this book I found it quite difficult to follow and then I suddenly 'got it' and I couldn't put it down. I don't know how the author got the two pronged idea of telling you the history of Venice ....through centuries.... From medieval up to the present ......through the eyes of one woman, who ages so very gradually. We learn of the Reformation, Napoleon, Cassanova, the Renaissance etc. right up to modern times, all through her eyes and we get to know her family, glass makers on Murano, who age as slowly but whose glass making becomes more and more modern.An amazing, intriguing and interesting book. Persevere through the first few pages and read to the end....It is well worth it!

4.0 out of 5 stars A history of glass-making from before one plague to after another

K.C.P. · 14 March 2025

I’ve only ever read one other book by Tracy Chevalier, Girl With a Pearl Earring, and that only after I’d seen the film. The Glass Maker isn’t a book I’d read of my own volition, however it was my book club’s choice so I didn’t mind going with the group consensus. On the positive side, it was an informative history of glass-making on Murano Island, in the Venetian Lagoon, over a period of roughly five hundred years. The profession was the pride of those families who handed it down from generation to generation, developing techniques for making new items, and guarding the secrets of these from rival families. The focus in this story is on the Rosso family, Orsola in particular, who starts out as a nine-year old and ends the story in her late sixties—although the narrative passes through five hundred years, which gave me an issue. Other reviewers have commented on the author’s decision to make time flow differently in Venice—and Murano as a part of Venetian society—and I too had problems with this, despite the explanation given at the start. The only way I could make sense of it was as an element of Magic Realism within a work of Historical Fiction—but the question ‘Why?’ was always with me. It enabled the author to document significant historical events which occurred in and around Venice—plague, the visit of Casanova, the conquest of Napoleon—in a manner different to that of writing a straight and clinical history, but I still didn’t really warm to it. I did foresee what would happen at the end, before Orsola herself realised it—which illustrates that the people of Murano and Venice know that time works differently for them, but never comment on the fact. Elsewhere, I couldn’t agree with much of the praise that’s been heaped upon this book, with Orsola described as ‘defiantly gifted’, ‘another determined heroine’ and so forth. Well, yes she is, but how much good does it do her|? The storyline sets up certain expectations, not just in the character but in the reader—and doesn’t deliver. Orsola settles, she endures, and she’s not a bad character—but I cried for another during the Covid crisis, the only deep emotion I experienced throughout. I could say much more but I’m not invested enough to do so. A good, well- written story which just didn’t do it for me. Sorry.

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great story

A.C. · 24 May 2025

I loved this book. Tracy Chevalier spins a tale the way the Murano glass makers spin their glass. The story spans an enormous length of time with Orsola Rosso and her family appearing in different times tracing the history of Murano and Venice very skilfully. The story of the family is set against such huge events as the plague and Covid. Imaginative and beautifully written.

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting journey through time

D. · 18 May 2025

Set on the island of Muraro this novel spans 400 years of glassmaking by the same family and I do mean the same family. Time passes at a different pace for Orsola and those who are important to her. It reminded me of when I played The Sims and turned off the ageing, so I could build up the characters instead of having new ones come along all the time.The novel's central character is a woman, women were not usually involved in The glassmaking but they were allowed to make beads which were made using lamps not in the furnaces. Orsola's need for a degree of independent and her love of glasswork draws her to this line of work. We follow her and her family's progress though the history of Venice from being the centre of trading to present day lockdown and it's reliance on tourists.

3.0 out of 5 stars Light Romance

g. · 20 October 2024

This novel covers a long arc of the history of Venice, from 1486 to 2022, from the Plague to Covid. It is told from the point of view of a family of glass makers, but especially that of Orsola who we first meet as a child pushed into the canal by her older brother. It is an appealing romantic story, but it is not the classic some reviewers claim, not one of Chevalier’s better writings. In particular, the author adopts a puzzling structure for the novel which did not work for this reader.She compares the narrative to a stone sent skipping across the lagoon, landing on and lifting off from different periods: French Revolution, Italian unification, First World War etc etc.. Yet while time passes for the wide world, it passes much more slowly for the Rosso family. Orsola is 10 years old in 1486, 37 years old in 1797 and reaches her late 60s only in the present day. Her close family journey in similar fashion. Sure, fiction is fiction, and authors play with time in many ways, but this left me stumped. I suppose it is like a cartoon – the world changes but Bart Simpson is always a child, Maggie never grows up.Tracy Chevalier does describe the changing world of glass making, and it was interesting enough to encourage me to do a little research. But the subject is not as prominent as the title implies. This is more a saga of family life, of births, marriages and deaths, of happiness and tragedy, secrets and lies. From that perspective it is a good enough read. No more than that.

The art of storytelling

I.i.r.h.T.C.c.c.a.f.n.a.h.f. · 19 October 2024

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } It’s amazing how Tracy Chevalier can create a fascinating narrative around historical facts.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

C.O. · 18 October 2024

5 Stars.At first, I was caught off-guard by this book and its notion of time passing through 6 centuries while the same characters live through all that time, aging much more slowly on the island of Murano just off the island of Venice, Italy. The family Rosso are glassmakers, a skill that men learned at their father’s knee and passed down from generation to generation. The eldest son, Marco, will become the Maestro, master of glassmaking, upon his father’s death. His sister, Orsola, as a woman, has no standing in the world of glassmaking, until she begins to make glass beads. And so begins a saga of more than 500 years of glassmaking, of Venetian and Muranese history, and of a family with the usual, and not so usual, personal and cultural tensions.I loved this novel, once I realized and then accepted the semi-time-travel nature of the story. It is an unusual convention, but it in no way derailed my enjoyment of the story or my admiration for the author. The characters are compelling, especially as they confront and survive the challenges of each century they traverse. The family grows, as each family does; at times, I had trouble keeping the 3rd generation clear in my mind and separate from the 2nd or 4th. I respected Orsola; found her story compelling—a departed lover, an arranged marriage, a struggling glassmaker trying to find her way. The female characters are strong, more intelligent than they are given credit for (the story of the ages), frequently manipulative, always inventive.The art and skill of glassmaking is also a “character”, figuring materially in the Rosso family’s fortunes, ups and downs. It is their livelihood and their heritage. Chevalier has meticulously researched this craft and her knowledge comes through, as does the history of Murano and Venice through these six centuries. I loved this book, and recommend it to anyone who appreciates well-written historical novels. I also listened to the audio of The Glass Makers. Lisa Flanagan is an excellent narrator; she differentiated the various voices beautifully, with several different accents: Italian, German, French. Five stars for her narration, as well.

Very enjoyable!

a. · 7 January 2025

Delivered on time.

The Glass Makers

b. · 18 September 2024

Wonderful history of glassmakers in and families in Venice thru the ages

I really enjoyed it

G. · 26 May 2025

What are pleasant reads.I liked the story situated in Venice. The skipping of the centuries I had to get used to but in the end it made sense.