The Glassblower of Murano (32 page)

Il Gazzettino.

She looked at Alessandro in time to see a smile of complicity pass between the two men. `Go on,' said her fiance.
`Read it.'

She opened the folds to read the headline. `MAESTRO
AND MARTYR. Corrado Manin returned to certain death
for the love of his secret daughter. Read the astonishing
true story of self-sacrifice of one of our city's greatest sons.'
Her eyes moved down to the byline. `An exclusive by
Vittoria Minotto.'

Leonora raised a brow. `Vittoria?'

Alessandro smiled.`I sent her Corradino's notebook.With
the sacristan's permission of course. It's safe back in the
Pieta now. I wanted it to be a surprise for you.'

it certainly is. She changed her tune!'

Alessandro sat down beside his son and tickled the baby's
belly. `Not really. If you'd had the misfortune to know her
as long as I have you'd realize that the only thing that
matters to Vittoria is an exclusive. She's not a bad person,
but she will shift sides with ease to get the best story. That's
why we would never have worked. Her job was always
much more important than people.'

Adelino had the grace to look sheepish at the mention
of work. `Speaking of jobs, we'd ... I'd like you back, as
soon as your family can spare you.'

Leonora looked down for a moment, remembering her
ignominious departure.

`We need you back. All of us; the maestri too. We're going
to be pretty busy. That edition only came out this morning
and we've already had hundreds of enquiries about the
Manin line. The public is a funny beast - they think
Corradino is a hero. We're thinking of going national with
the ad campaign. Chiara and Semi are very excited.'

Leonora started to laugh. `I bet they are.' But she began
to remember other things, the smell of the Porno, the hot
glass growing beneath her breath, taking shape in her hands.
She had loved it, but she did not want to give in at once.
`How do I know you want me back to be a glassblower,
and not just to be some figurehead for your world domination?'

'Ali, you must let me come to my second gift,' said
Adelino, patting all his pockets in a mock pantomime
which elicited a reluctant smile from Leonora. Then, from
the last pocket, he pulled, in the manner of a magician
revealing a string of handkerchiefs, a length of familiar blue
ribbon. Transfixed, Leonora's jaw dropped as the glass heart
popped out ofAdelino's pocket. Perfect as ever, imprisoning
light in its core. Leonora looked at Alessandro, who shook
his head, equally amazed.

`But how did you ... when did you ...'

`How did you fish it out of the canal?' They spoke
together in a rush.

Adelino drew his white brows together. `What do you
mean?'

Alessandro told the tale, by now ashamed of his part in it. `So you see, the heart is ... was ... somewhere under
the Bridge of Sighs. I'm just surprised that it was found.'

Adelino smiled. `No, no. This is not Corradino's heart.
That one has found its rest, and just as well. Leave it for
the city and the sea to claim.'

As it claimed Corradino. Yes, it was a.fitting end.

`This,' Adelino waved the heart, which winked in the sun,
,is one of the ones you made at the fornace, Leonora. This
is why I want you back. You must be a better glassblower
than you think to mistake your workmanship for your
ancestor's.' He smiled expansively, including them all in
this new word.

Leonora examined the heart and could not see the flaws
she had imagined before. `Very well,' she said. 'I'll be back.
But not yet. I have my son to take care of at the moment.
Give me a few months.You can use all the ad material in
the meantime: She smiled.'But I'm sure you would anyway.'
Adelino's grin, the grin of a merchant, a pirate, a buccaneer,
had returned.

She looked down at the heart where it shone in her
hand. 'I'll keep it close as you asked,' she said quietly, a
whisper to a long-dead man who had loved his child too.
She made as if to tie the heart round her neck, in its old
place, but Adelino stopped her.

`Hey, hey, what are you doing? It's not for you!' The
familiar twinkle was back.

`It's not?'

`No, it's for Corradino,' said Adelino, pointing to the
baby.

Leonora and Alessandro exchanged a look. Started to
smile.

`Here, Corradino,' Leonora dangled the heart over the
sheepskin rug, `how do you like your birthright?'

One tiny hand reached up for the bright glass, closed over
it, and didn't let go.

THE END

Writing a book is a solitary experience, but I was lucky enough
to have someone along for the journey. So most of all I'd like
to thank my husband Sacha Bennett for being my editor, muse,
psychiatrist, nanny, chef and printer; in short, my everything.

Once the book was finished I had lots of help from some
fantastic people: thanks to my brilliant agent Teresa Chris
for her constant faith in me, and to Simon Petherick,
Tamsin Griffiths and the team at Beautiful Books for getting
behind the novel in such a big way. Thanks to friend and
writer Helene Wiggin for her encouragement and advice,
and to Nigel Bliss for going to the right wedding! Thanks
also to my Dad Adelin Fiorato for knowing his way round
Dante, and to my Mum Barbara Fiorato for correcting my
French.

If this book has a message I guess it is that family are everything. So thank you to Conrad and Ruby for letting mummy
write, and for teaching me that when you have a child it's like
letting your heart walk around outside of your body.

Last but not least, thank you to the Glassblowers of Murano,
who work miracles every day.

by Marina Fiorato

About the Author

• A Conversation with Marina Fiorato

Behind the Novel

• "The History of Murano"
An Original Essay by the Author

Keep on Reading

• Recommended Reading

• Reading Group Questions

For more reading group suggestions
visit wwwreadinggroupgold.com.

A Conversation with
Marina Fiorato

"My old
interests had
found me with
a vengeance-it
was like being
tapped on the
shoulder by
my past."

Could you tell us a little bit about your personal and
professional background, and when it was you decided
to lead a literary life?

I was born and educated in the north of England and
at university I studied history. I then rebelled against
my parents' academic background by going to art
school and entering the film and music business! I
began by generating onscreen graphics and I was lucky
enough to work on films like Tomb Raider with
Angelina Jolie and Proof of Life with Russell Crowe. I
shifted into rock music and worked with U2 and the
Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, but when I became
pregnant with my first child I took maternity leave. It
was then that my old life found me again, and it was
after I had my son that I had the idea for the story for
Glassblower. I wrote the book while I was on leave and
never returned to my job. I think I had been trying to
be something I was not, and then, when I had a child
of my own, ideas of heritage and my Venetian origins
became enormously important. My old interests had
found me with a vengeance-it was like being tapped
on the shoulder by my past.

Is there a book or author that inspired you to become
a writer?

I grew up reading Pamela Kaufman's books about Alix
of Wanthwaite and her wonderful earthy writing and
sense of period really inspired me-she invokes the
sounds, sights, and even smells of the past so well! In
more recent writing I love the prose of Thomas Harris.
In the Florentine section of Hannibal I think he really
manages to evoke the beauty but also the brutality of
Italy at the same time. It's a modern tale but so
Renaissance in spirit.

You studied history at Oxford University and the
University of Venice, where you specialized in the study
of Shakespeare's plays as an historical source. How has
your education influenced your writing?

I studied a lot of Shakespeare in school and was
inspired by both the language and the sheer drama
of his storytelling. I'm like a magpie when I write; I
steal shiny bits of the work of my betters and weave
them into my own prose! There is so much Shakespeare
in The Glassblower of Murano, from pieces of plot to
direct quotes. I was particularly inspired in this case by
The Merchant of Venice, which is one of the plays I
studied in detail for my master's degree, but I also
lifted a plotline from Romeo and Juliet. There's even a
quote from The Tempest in there somewhere. At least
I steal from the best!

Do you scrupulously adhere to historical facts in your
novels, or do you take liberties if the story can benefit
from the change?

I do try, as far as possible, to be reasonably accurateI think because of my training in historical research that
any blatant inaccuracies would really jar. If push came
to shove, though, I would sacrifice total accuracy for the
cause of the story. It's not my job as a novelist to create
a piece of historical documentation. What I'd like to
think is that my books might serve to interest people in
a certain period or character, and serve as a jumping-off
point for them to then go away and research their interests from proper historical sources. My historical hero,
Corradino Manin, is fictional so I wasn't bound by the
constraints of writing about a real person; that gave me
a certain amount of freedom. The context, though, the
world in which he lives, does have to be accurate. There
are real historical figures in the book, like Louis XIV,
but as they tend to be marginal there is not the
obligation to feverishly research them.