Falcon in the Glass
A boy risks his life to save some very special children in this fantasy adventure rife with “moments of real beauty and mystery” (Kirkus Reviews), set amidst the rich backdrop of Renaissance Venice.
In Renaissance Venice, the secrets of glassblowing are guarded
jealously. Renzo, a twelve-year-old laborer in a glassworks, has just a
few months to prepare for a test of his abilities, and no one to teach
him. If he passes, he will qualify as a skilled glassblower. If he
fails, he will be expelled from the glassworks. Becoming a glassblower
is his murdered father’s dying wish for him, and the means of supporting his mother and sister. But Renzo desperately needs another pair of
hands to help him turn the glass as he practices at night.
One
night he is disturbed by a bird — a small falcon — that belongs to a girl
hiding in the glassworks. Soon Renzo learns about her and others like
her — the bird people, who can communicate with birds and are condemned as witches. He tries to get her to help him, but discovers that she comes
with baggage: ten hungry bird-kenning children who desperately need his
aid. Caught between devotion to his family and his art and protecting a
group of outcast children, Renzo struggles for a solution that will keep everyone safe in this atmospheric adventure.
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Susan Fletcher
Susan Fletcher was born in Birmingham and studied English Literature at the University of York. Whilst taking the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, she began her first novel, Eve Green, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award (2004) and Betty Trask Prize (2005). Since then, she has written seven novels, supplementing her writing through various roles including as a cheesemonger and a warden for an archaeological excavation site near Hadrian’s Wall. She has also been the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Worcester. She lives in Warwickshire.
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