The Glassmaker - Tracy Chevalier, HarperCollins Publishers

'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.