The Glassmaker, by Tracy Chevalier (paperback)
 
'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.