About this book:

Set against the vibrant and volatile backdrop of Renaissance Prague, *The Glassmaker’s Daughter* follows Anna Novak, who unexpectedly inherits her father’s workshop in a society where women are legally barred from the guild. To protect her apprentices and keep the furnaces burning, Anna must navigate the city’s deep religious and political fractures, forming a "Covenant of Heat" with a diverse group of allies, including a reclusive scholar and the legendary Rabbi Loew. As she masters the difficult craft of *cristallo* and colored glass, her workshop becomes a nexus for the city’s competing powers: the secretive alchemists of the Emperor’s court and the embattled residents of the Jewish ghetto.

The narrative intensifies as Anna is commissioned by the enigmatic "Patron in Black" to create a series of extraordinary glass objects, including a "mirror of truth" for the Emperor. These successes bring both wealth and dangerous scrutiny, eventually leading to a blockade by the glassmakers' guild and an investigation by the Inquisition. Amidst rumors of a Golem walking the streets and the discovery of discarded imperial experiments in the Vltava River, Anna uses her technical expertise to turn the workshop into a fortress of resistance, hiding heretical scholars and embedding secret messages into the very windows of the Saint Vitus Cathedral.

The story culminates in a series of high-stakes atmospheric trials where Anna must prove the purity of her craft. By gifting a "Civic Lantern" to the people of Prague—a masterpiece that weaves the identities of all the city's quarters into a single beacon—she gains the public mandate needed to survive the Inquisition's "Trial by Flame." Through the fusion of ancient techniques and modern innovation, Anna mends the city’s symbolic heart, proving that artisanal brilliance can bridge the most jagged social divides. In the end, the book serves as a meditation on transparency, legacy, and the enduring resilience of those who labor in the light of the furnace.