Join us to celebrate the launch of the 2024 Folkestone Book Festival, with this exclusive opening-night event – an evening with the acclaimed American author Tracy Chevalier.

It has been twenty-five years since Chevalier became a household name with her international bestseller, Girl With A Pearl Earring.

Chevalier will unveil the inspirations and intricacies behind her latest novel, The Glassmaker, set in city of Venice in 1486. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers in Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass – but she has the hands for it, the heart, and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes. The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is spellbinding: a mesmerising portrait of a woman, a family, and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.

Introduced by our new festival curator, the author Sophie Haydock, join us for a captivating evening as Chevalier delves into how the past still resonates in her novels and continues to shape our understanding of today. Chevalier will discuss her process of researching and bringing to life the rich, intricate world of 15th-century Venice in The Glassmaker.

Don’t miss your chance to be help launch this year’s festival in style, and immerse yourself in the magic of the art of storytelling from one of the best writers in the business…

Follow Tracy Chevalier on Instagram: @tracychevalierwriter and on Twitter/X: @Tracy_Chevalier

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Folkestone Book Festival is our annual celebration of books, ideas, reading and writing in many magical forms. This year's festival has been curated by award-winning author and journalist Sophie Haydock. Sophie is our new Curator: Books, Ideas and Community.

Opening Night: Tracy Chevalier - Creative Folkestone