The Glassmaker

'Spellbinding' ELIF SHAFAK 'Ingenious' THE TIMES, Book of the Year 'Sparkling'OBSERVER 'A triumph' PHILIP PULLMAN 'As finely wrought as a dazzling Murano bead' INDEPENDENT 'Meticulously researched and evoking the beauty of the Venice lagoon' PHILIPPA GREGORY 'A spectacular feat, crafted by a maestra at the top of her game' SPECTATOR FROM THE GLOBALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here - like the glass the island's maestros spend their lives perfecting. In secret, Orsola Rosso learns to craft glass. As a woman, she must flout convention to save her family from ruin. We follow her through hundreds of years of war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss. Skipping like a stone across the centuries, The Glassmaker is a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as glass.

Tracy Chevalier has been visiting Venice regularly since her honeymoon there in 1994. She is the author of eleven novels, including A Single Thread, Remarkable Creatures and Girl with a Pearl Earring, an international bestseller that has sold over five million copies and been made into a film, a play and an opera. Born in Washington DC, she moved to the United Kingdom in 1986. She and her husband divide their time between London and Dorset.