Tracy Chevalier’s The Glassmaker is a beautifully crafted story about the power of art, the fluidity of time and the ache of an unfulfilled love. It had me hooked from the prologue, which was so beautifully written that I immediately gushed about it to everyone who would listen.
Time doesn’t move as expected in this novel. Chavelier asks us to imagine a stone being skimmed across water and touching down at various points. This is how she then handles the concept of time – hopping from one moment/decade/century to the next. This might unsettle some readers but I found the transcendence of time to be fascinating and enriching.
This is one of those books that quietly draws you in and completely immerses you in its world. Set in 17th-century Murano, it follows Orsola, a young girl fascinated by the art of glassmaking, as she grows into a woman navigating love and loss across the centuries. The novel has an almost dreamlike quality, with time moving in unexpected ways. Watching Orsola mature, both as a person and in her craft, is incredibly satisfying, and Chevalier captures that sense of slow transformation beautifully.
The history of glassmaking is woven into the story so naturally that it never feels like a history lesson, just a fascinating part of Orsola’s world. You can almost see the glass taking shape and feel the heat of the furnaces such is the richness of her description. The setting is just as vivid: the canals, the workshops, the shifting political landscape of Venice… it all feels completely alive.
Chevalier’s writing is elegant but effortless and her description so rich that it reads like poetry in some places. I reckon this is a contender for one of my faves of 2025!
