Tag: Historical Fiction Book Club

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Audio Books Beat the Backlist book reviews Emma's Anticipated Treasures

BOOK REVIEW: The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

Published September 12th, 2024 by The Borough Press
Historical Fiction, Magical Realism, Medical Ficiton, Domestic Ficiton, Coming-of-Age Story

Welcome to my review for this beautiful novel which I read with the Historical Fiction Book Club this month.

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

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 learning to handle.

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.

The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?

Tracy Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is vivid, inventive, spellbinding: a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.

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MY REVIEW:

Venice in 1486. 14-year-old Orsola Rosso lives across the lagoon on Murano, a place where time flows differently – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives perfecting. But it is a man’s world, and after her father’s sudden death it is her brother, Marco, who takes his place. Meanwhile, Orsola learns to craft glass in secret, slowly penetrating glassmaking’s patriarchal world. The story then follows through the centuries, following Orsola and her family as they try to survive in an ever-changing world. 

Beautiful, immersive, moving and enthralling, The Glassmaker is a time-bending tour-de-force that sparkles as brightly as a Murano bead. Part historical fiction and part fable, Tracy Chevalier plays with the concept of time, bending all of the rules and creatively reshaping it to craft this imaginative story. Magnificently written, meticulously researched, cleverly choreographed, with evocative imagery and richly drawn characters, Chevalier showcases herself to be a maestra in her own field with this dazzling and unforgettable story. There is a strong sense of place, Chevalier capturing the beauty of Venice and Murano and the spirit of their inhabitants. Time moves differently on Murano – a hundred years can go by in the blink of an eye while the people who live here age only a few years. It’s a fascinating concept and I enjoyed how she used it to demonstrate how little life actually changes despite the passing of the years and discoveries that are made.

The story centres around the Rosso family, particularly Orsola Rosso, who is just a teenager when the story begins. Orsola is an unforgettable heroine. Talented, strong, resilient, determined and passionate, she challenges societal and gender norms to fulfil her dream of becoming a glassmaker and sustaining her family. But she is also a character who settles for less and endures hardships, often for the good of her family over her own desires, and I sometimes found it hard to understand why she would be so steadfast in some areas and capitulate in others. We follow the Rosso family through many years of historical and societal changes. They face wars, plagues, hunger, new technology and changes to the glass industry. We watch them fall in love, suffer heartbreak and grieve for people they’ve lost. I enjoyed  watching this family and witnessing how the individual members adapted to all of their challenges and changes. It created a strong bond, made me root for them and feel invested in their lives. And I was sad when I closed the book and left them behind.

A spectacular story that will stay with you long after reading, pick this up if you enjoyed How to Stop Time or The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracy is the author of 11 novels, including the international bestseller GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, which has sold over 5 million copies and been made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. American by birth, British by geography, she lives in London and Dorset. Her latest novel, THE GLASSMAKER, is set in Venice and follows a family of glass masters over the course of 5 centuries.

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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxx

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book reviews

HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK CLUB: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Published August 30th, 2001 by Viking
Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical Romance

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘March’ and ‘People of the Book’.

A young woman’s struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village.

In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection.

So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction.

Geraldine Brooks’s novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. ‘Year of Wonders’ is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England’s last great plague.

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MY REVIEW:

“This plague will make heroes of us all, whether we will or no.”

I first read Year of Wonders about twenty years ago and it has stayed with me. It instantly became one of my all-time favourite books and I have recommended it to other readers many times over the years. So when the Historical Fiction Book Club picked it as their July read, I was excited to revisit this story. But would I love it as much this time around?

Spring, 1966. A bolt of infected fabric carries the plague from London to the quiet Derbyshire village of Eyam. As the plague starts to spread among them, the villagers isolate themselves to avoid spreading the infection further. A fateful decision that will see most of their small village wiped out by the disease. Year of Wonders tells the story of that fateful quarantine through the eyes of Anna, a young widowed mother, as she tries to save herself and her family. But, as the sickness skulks from household to household and the death tally rises and her community crumbles around her, Anna must confront loss, suspicion, and the temptation of an illicit attraction. 

“The plague had come upon us like a thief in the night, stealing our breath, our strength, our loves and lives.”

I’ve been fascinated with the history of Eyam ever since studying it and taking a trip there in primary school. I was fascinated by the idea that these people willingly quarantined themselves knowing it was a death sentence in order to save others. Living close to Eyam helped it feel more personal, too. So as soon as I saw the synopsis for this book I knew I had to read it. And going into this second time around it held the heavy expectations of being one of my favourite books. Did it live up to them? It certainly did! Atmospheric, haunting and alluring, it was every bit as mesmerising the second time around and I was lost for words when it was over.

“I fear the line between myself and madness is as fine these days as a cobweb, and I have seen what it means when a soul crosses over into that dim and wretched place.”

A few years ago, a Collins Modern Classic version of the book was released, and it certainly deserves that status. Exquisitely written, meticulously researched, and evocatively told, Geraldine Brooks transported me back to 17th Century Derbyshire threading gossamer layers of storylines together with a chorus of detailed characters to immerse me in the lives of these villagers. Their fierce resolve is palpable and I am in awe at their bravery and sacrifice. There is something so potent and intimately tragic about the characters going about their everyday lives or worrying about whether a love affair is appropriate juxtaposed with the extraordinary circumstances of a village quickly being wiped out by a deadly plague. A sense of creeping dread and unfolding horror that lingers on these pages and it’s a powerful and emotional read, filled with awful anticipation as we know their terrible fate but desperately hope that a different ending might await them. 

Harrowing, dark, disquieting, affecting and deeply human, Year of Wonders is an absolute masterpiece. Add this to your TBR now. And if you’ve already read it, then read it again because it is every bit as enthralling when re-read. 

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

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MEET THE AUTHOR:

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, attending Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues.

In 1982 she won the Greg Shackleton Australian News Correspondents scholarship to the journalism master’s program at Columbia University in New York City. Later she worked forThe Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. In 1990, with her husband Tony Horwitz, she won the Overseas Press Club Award for best coverage of the Gulf War. The following year they received a citation for excellence for their series, “War and Peace.”  In 2006 she was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. She returned to Harvard as a Visiting Lecturer in 2021.

She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March. Her novels People of the Book, Caleb’s Crossing and The Secret Chord all were New York Times Bestsellers. Her first novel, Year of Wonders is an an international bestseller, translated into more than 25 languages and currently optioned for a limited series by Olivia Coleman’s production company. She is also the author of the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire, Foreign Correspondence and The Idea of Home.

Brooks married fellow journalist and author Tony Horwitz in Tourette-sur-Loup France in 1984 and were together until his sudden death in 2019.  They have two sons, Nathaniel and Bizu, She now lives with a dog named Bear and a mare named Valentine by an old mill pond on Martha’s Vineyard and spends as much time as she can in Australia.  In 2016, she was named an Officer in the Order of Australia.

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BUY THE BOOK:

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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxx

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book reviews Emma's Anticipated Treasures Most Anticipated 2022

REVIEW: That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn

Published July 21st, 2022 by Simon & Schuster UK
Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Adventure Fiction

Thank you to Simon & Schuster UK for the proof copy of this outstanding historical fiction novel.

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SYNOPSIS:

‘What a heroine Endurance Proudfoot is! I loved her from the start. An unconventional woman who takes us on a fascinating – if bumpy – ride through a man’s world. I laughed, cried and most of all cheered! Can’t stop thinking about it… an absolute cruncher of a tale’ Janice Hallett, author of The Appeal

‘A complete joy of a novel that, like it’s wonderful protagonist’s namesake, is a story of endurance against all odds. Full of heart and so eloquently written, THAT BONESETTER WOMAN had me cheering Durie on from start to finish – I absolutely loved it’ Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora

​It’s usual, they say, for a young person coming to London for the first time to arrive with a head full of dreams. Well, Endurance Proudfoot did not. When she stepped off the coach from Sussex, on a warm and sticky afternoon in the summer of 1757, it never occurred to her that the city would be the place where she’d make her fortune; she was just very annoyed to be arriving there at all.
 
Meet Endurance Proudfoot: clumsy as a carthorse, strong as an ox, with a tactless tongue and a face she’s sure only a mother could love. Durie wants one thing in life: to become a bonesetter like her father. It’s physically demanding work, requiring nerves of steel, and he’s adamant it’s not a job for a woman.

Strong-willed and stubborn, Durie’s certain that in bonesetting, her big, usually clumsy hands have found their natural calling. So when she’s bundled off to London with her beautiful sister, she won’t let it stop her realising her dream. As her sister finds fame on the stage, Durie becomes England’s most celebrated bonesetter – but what goes up must come down, and her success may become her undoing.

Inspired by the true stories of two of Georgian England’s most famous celebrities, That Bonesetter Woman is an uplifting tale about finding the courage to go your own way, when everyone says you can’t – and about realising that what makes you different can also make you strong.

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MY REVIEW:

“She was going to be a bonesetter. She was going to fix people.”

I was delighted when That Bonesetter Woman was chosen as the September book by the Historical Fiction Book Club as it has been on my TBR since receiving a proof last year (yes, this review is very late). It was also one of the 12 backlist books  I added to my ‘12 in 2023’ list back in January and I haven’t been good at getting to those so I was pleased to tick another off that list. 

Endurance (Durie) Proudfoot has never fit in. Instead of being beautiful, graceful, and tactful like other girls, she’s clumsy, unusually strong, tactless, and has a face only a mother could love. She also has an unusual dream: to be a bonesetter like her father. But bonesetting is seen as a job for boys, so a frustrated Durie is carted off to London with her younger sister, Lucinda. But she’s determined that this isn’t the end of her bonesetting dreams and carves out a path to accomplish becoming England’s most celebrated bonsetter. But traditionalists don’t like that a woman is taking up space in a man’s world and set out to put her back in her place.

Mesmerising, immersive, and absorbing, That Bonesetter Woman is another outstanding novel from the pen of masterful storyteller Frances Quinn. Her magnificent debut, The Smallest Man, was one of my favourite books of 2020, so I had high expectations for this book. And she surpassed them all. As she did in her debut, Quinn has created fictional characters inspired by real historical people and then merged fact with fiction to craft an unforgettable story about those who are different. Meticulously researched and rich in fascinating historical details that I loved—did you know you used to get free zoo entry to the London Zoo with a dead cat?—it feels so real that I had to keep reminding myself this wasn’t biographical fiction and Durie is a fictional character. Exquisitely written and perfectly paced, Quinn puts our emotions through the wringer with some heartwarming, heartbreaking and wonderful subplots that are woven into Durie’s story. She brings history to life, wrenching you out of your own reality and into the one she’s created. 

“Each time seemed like a reminder that she just didn’t fit in the world like other people did. Except when she was doing the one thing age wasn’t clumsy and cack-handed at, and what was she going to do if she wasn’t allowed to do that?”

Durie Proudfoot is a truly original heroine. I can promise you will have never read anyone quite like her. She’s headstrong, stubborn, determined, plain-speaking, and honest. Someone with heart and morality who has no time for flattery, lies, or greed. And though Durie lives a life that is extraordinary and memorable, it is also a life marred by anguish and misfortune. Quinn creates a strong connection between the reader and protagonist, making us feel deeply the pain that inhabits her as she struggles with being different, trying to understand the behaviours of others, and other challenging events in her life. Also palpable is her frustration at being caged by the expectations of society as they attempt to put her in a box she has never and will never fit in. I loved how she fought for what she wanted and knew was right for her from a young age, even when facing what seemed like increasingly insurmountable odds as she got older. She was a truly remarkable and fascinating woman and I loved watching her metamorphosis from clumsy outcast to celebrated bonesetter. 

Though no other character shone as brightly as Durie, the book has a cast of richly drawn background characters that I enjoyed. George stands out as one I particularly liked, probably because of his kind, thoughtful character and the sweet relationship he shared with Durie. Like her, he is straightforward and is one of the few people she really connects with. He’s the kind of love-interest we dream of: someone who really gets you and accepts you for who you are. Their scenes together were some of my favourite in the book and I was rooting for them every step of the way.

Atmospheric, evocative, ambitious and compelling, That Bonesetter Woman is an epic masterpiece of historical fiction that I highly recommend.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5

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MEET THE AUTHOR:

Frances Quinn grew up in London and read English at King’s College, Cambridge, realising too late that the course would require more than lying around reading novels for three years. After snatching a degree from the jaws of laziness, she became a journalist, writing for magazines including Prima, Good Housekeeping, She, Woman’s Weekly and Ideal Home, and later branched out into copywriting, producing words for everything from Waitrose pizza packaging to the EasyJet in-flight brochure. 

In 2013, she won a place on the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course, and started work on her first novel. The Smallest Man was published in 2021 by Simon & Schuster with her follow up, That Bonesetter Woman, published in 2022. 

She lives in Brighton, with her husband and two Tonkinese cats.

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BUY THE BOOK:

Waterstones* | Bookshop.org* | Amazon*

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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles xxxxx

*These purchase links are affiliate links