The Glassmaker

Description

“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.“Impressive . . . Between fascinating descriptions of artisans at work and the glassware they create, Chevalier embeds a love story that transcends time as Orsola, across 500 years, holds on to the love she carries for a man she knew in her youth. With colorful narrative and dialogue, Chevalier lets time roll forward through independent women who are determined to shape glass into works of art and frame life paths of their own design. History flows like molten glass in this stunning novel.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Characterization is well-drawn, and descriptions of the art of glassmaking will draw readers with their beauty and evocation.” – Booklist

“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
 
“Tracy Chevalier pens a novel as ambitious, audacious, and artistic as a Venetian glass goblet. Beginning in the height of the Renaissance and hopscotching with casual ease through the centuries to the modern day, she examines the ever-changing city of Venice through the eyes of Orsola Rosso, defiantly gifted daughter of a Murano glassmaking family, and how her unique gift with glass shines through time, fragile but unbreakable. The Glassmaker is a thing of beauty.” – Kate Quinn, author of The Diamond Eye

“Tracy Chevalier returns to the world of medieval craft and gives us another determined heroine—a Venetian glassmaker who penetrates the closed world of the men of Murano. Meticulously researched and evoking the beauty of the Venice lagoon, the story challenges and transports the reader through time and place.” – Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl

“A richly-drawn tale about loyalty and heartbreak, as well as a love letter to the craftsmen—and women—who created exquisite treasures that endure through the ages. A stunning achievement. I couldn’t put it down.” – Fiona Davis, author of The Spectacular

“Chevalier, one of our great storytellers, brings us unexpected worlds: Venice and Murano, artisans and empresses, compelling us through six fascinating centuries, with one irresistible family, weaving stories that captivate and transport the reader.” – Amy Bloom, author of White Houses

“Spellbinding…. Chevalier at her fabulous best. A rich, vivid and gently enchanting novel.” – Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees

“In the Venice of The Glassmaker, time moves differently, with hundreds of years passing in the blink of an eye….When one has the chance to live for centuries, love and loss seem to cut more deeply, and the winds of change never stop blowing, which means that the ground is constantly shifting beneath the feet of Chevalier’s perfectly drawn characters. Inspiring, heartbreaking, and magical, The Glassmaker is an inventive and extraordinary feat and an epic for the ages.” – Kristin Harmel, author of The Paris Daughter

“A triumph… a brilliant idea carried out with confidence and brio and a deep love of an extraordinary city. The ingenuity of the time-skipping is beyond admiration.” – Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials

“I lost myself in this beautiful book.” – Esther Freud, author of Hideous KinkyTracy Chevalier is the New York Times bestselling author of ten previous novels, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has been translated into forty-five languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film, a play, and an opera. Born and raised in Washington, DC, she lives in London with her husband.

1. Time flows differently in The Glassmaker’s Venice. Characters skip across centuries while aging only a few years at a time. They live through several eras and major historical events, including a plague, two world wars, and a global pandemic. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story of Orsola and the Rosso family in this way? What did you think of this decision?

2. Early on in the novel, Maria Barovier tells Orsola, “Beads fill the spaces between things. . . . They are inconsequential, and women can make them because of that.” Did you agree with the reasoning behind Maria’s statement? Consider the shifting roles of women and beadmaking in the Rosso family business over time. At what point did you feel that Orsola’s beads became “consequential”?

3. Marco, Orsola’s stubborn and hot-headed eldest brother, ridicules her plan to help support their family by selling beads. Nevertheless, Orsola forges her own relationships with the family’s business partners and manages to sell her beads independently from their other glassware. What barriers did Orsola have to overcome—within her family, her line of work, and society at large—to successfully advocate for herself as a businesswoman? Do women today face similar challenges in vying for their work to be taken seriously?

4. Poor business decisions and a tough economic climate drive the Rossos to the brink of financial ruin. What tensions among the members of the Rosso family emerge during this time? On the other hand, how do they draw strength from one another? Why do you think familial bonds can endure even in the face of situations that threaten to tear them apart?

5. The Muranese are fiercely loyal to their island, and Orsola herself displays a clear disdain of terraferma—the world beyond her beloved Murano. How does Orsola’s love for Antonio clash with her love for her home? If you were in her situation—torn between following the man whom she loves or remaining with her family and the place where she had grown up—which would you have picked?

6. Long after Antonio has parted ways with Orsola, she continues to collect the glass dolphins that are sent her way. Do you think that it was acceptable for her to do so? Do you feel that this impacted Orsola’s commitment to her husband and daughter?

7. The Glassmaker traces Orsola’s life from girlhood into adolescence, motherhood, and beyond. How do her responsibilities to her family and her work expand as she ages? Do you believe the demands placed upon her are reasonable? How do the roles that the Rosso women are expected to fulfill compare to those expected of women today?

8. Orsola finds a steady companion in Domenego, the African gondolier who serves Gottfried Klingenberg, her family’s longtime trade partner. What do you think was the significance of including his character in Orsola’s story? What did he reveal about the world of The Glassmaker that the Rosso family could not?

9. Marco, Giacomo, Antonio, and Stefano—some of the most important men to Orsola and to the Rosso family business—have vastly different demeanors and ways of navigating life. Each of them, however, must contend with the pressure of leading in the absence of a maestro and the societal expectations that come with being men in business. How do each of these men uphold or subvert the standards of masculinity imposed upon them?

10. The story is told in close third person, looking over Orsola’s shoulder. There is a big emphasis on her relationships with people: family, friends, the community, business. Which do you feel is the most important relationship in the book and why? Put another way, which scene is the climax and resolution of the story: Stefano’s funeral, Domenego leaving, the revelation of the makers of the glass dolphins? Or something else?

11. Over the course of the novel, Venice declines from a booming hub of commerce to a tourist attraction overrun by novelty shops. Along the way, the Rossos reluctantly adapt to cut costs, such as when they pivot to making smaller and cheaper seed beads. Do you think that artistry and profit are inherently at odds with each other? To what extent do you feel it is acceptable to compromise quality for financial gain?

12. Orsola sees generations of Rossos pass away, move out of Murano, and abandon the family craft. She laments, “The Rosso family is falling apart,” to which Stella replies, “No, it’s not, it’s just changing.” With whose outlook do you feel more aligned? What do you think is the distinction between a family simply changing as opposed to falling apart?

13. The Glassmaker ends in the present day, in a world recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. After traveling through time with the Rossos, how did it feel to see them navigate the pandemic, particularly compared to the plague of 1575? Did the Rossos’ experiences resonate with your own?

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