Showing results by author "Tracy Chevalier" in All Categories

Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to control. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime. Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.

I don’t remember there ever being a time when I weren’t out upon beach. Mam used to say the window was open when I was born, and the first thing I saw when they held me up was the sea. Mary Anning may be young and uneducated, but she has “the eye”. Scouring the windswept Jurassic coast...

From the globally best-selling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring. It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiancé and her brother and regarded by society as a ‘surplus woman’ unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. A new life awaits her in Winchester. Yes, it is one of draughty boarding-houses and sidelong glances at her naked ring finger from younger colleagues; but it is also a life gleaming with independence and opportunity.

Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely ventured out of 1850s Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America. Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family. In this...

17th Century Holland. When Griet becomes a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer in the town of Delft, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry and the care of his six children. But as she becomes part of his world and his work, their growing intimacy spreads tension and deception...

The girl reminded me of my favourite chocolates, whipped hazelnut creams, and I knew just from looking at her that I wanted her for my best friend. Queen Victoria is dead. In January 1901, the day after her passing, two very different families visit neighbouring graves in a London cemetery. The...

She was called Isabelle, and when she was a small girl her hair changed colour in the time it takes a bird to call to its mate… Midwife Isabelle du Moulin is marked as different, by both her red hair and her love for the Virgin Mary in her rich blue robes. As religious fervour sweeps...

Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of New Boy by Tracy Chevalier, read by Prentice Onayemi. 'O felt her presence behind him like a fire at his back.' Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat’s son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to...

“One in ten trees comes up sweet…” In the inhospitable Black Swamp of Ohio, the Goodenough family are barely scratching out a living. Life there is harsh, tempered only by the apples they grow for eating and for the cider that dulls their pain. Hot-headed Sadie and buttoned-up James are a...

‘What would you have me paint instead of a battle, Madame?’ Geneviève de Nanterre’s eyes gleamed. ‘A unicorn.’ Keen to demonstrate his new-found favour with the King, rising nobleman Jean le Viste commissions six tapestries to adorn the walls of his château. He expects soldiers and...

‘Tell me, then: would you say you are innocent or experienced?’ 1792. Uprooted from their quiet Dorset village to the riotous streets of London, young Jem Kellaway and his family feel very far from home. They struggle to find their place in this tumultuous city, still alive with the...

‘It is a stunning story, compassionately reimagined’ Guardian Tracy Chevalier’s stunning novel of how one woman’s gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century. A revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of...

OVER FIVE MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE ‘A phenomenon’ Jessie Burton ‘Dazzling’ Daily Mail ‘Truly magical' Guardian Those eyes are fixed on someone. But who? What is she thinking as she stares out from one of the world’s best-loved paintings? Johannes Vermeer can spot exceptional...

Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to control. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime. Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.

‘Vividly imagined’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Sex and death meet again in [a] marvellous evocation of Edwardian England’ Daily Mail Queen Victoria is dead. In January 1901, the day after her passing, two very different families visit neighbouring graves in a London cemetery. The traditional...

Países Bajos, siglo XVII. La joven Griet, de dieciséis años, entra a trabajar al servicio de Johannes Vermeer en la ciudad de Delft. Griet parece saber cuál es su papel en la casa: ocuparse de las tareas domésticas y cuidar a los seis niños del pintor. Sin embargo, la sensibilidad de la muchacha llama la atención de Vermeer, quien le abre las puertas de su mundo y su trabajo. A medida que la intimidad crece entre ambos, también lo hacen la tensión y los celos. Y pronto, llega el escándalo.

England, dreißiger Jahre. Die Abende, an denen Violet mit einer Gruppe ungewöhnlicher Frauen wunderschöne Stickereien für die Kathedrale in Winchester anfertigt, sind der Aufbruch in eine neue Welt. Chevaliers neuer Roman ist episch, warmherzig und lebendig - eine Hommage an die weibliche Kunstfertigkeit und ein Buch darüber, wie Schönheit auch ein bescheidenes Leben erfüllen kann.

The new novel from the author of the much-loved Girl with a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels. The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are a set of six medieval tapestries. Beautiful, intricate and expertly made, they are also mysterious in their origin and meaning. Tapestries give an appearance of...

‘This collection is stormy, romantic, strong – the Full Brontë’ The Times A collection of short stories celebrating Charlotte Brontë, published in the year of her bicentenary and stemming from the now immortal words from her great work Jane Eyre. The twenty-one stories in Reader, I...

Il destino di Griet, figlia di uno dei decoratori di piastrelle più rinomati in città, cambia il giorno in cui alla sua porta compaiono due sconosciuti: un uomo dal viso spigoloso, occhi grigi come il mare ed espressione ferma, e una donna, riccioli biondi e sguardo sfuggente, che sembra portata dal vento. Nella casa dei Vermeer, tra l'artista e la serva, l'uomo potente e la giovane donna che possiede solo la sua incantevole innocenza, nasce ben presto un'intesa fatta di sguardi, sospiri, frasi non dette.