TWO WOMEN SEPARATED BY CENTURIES, THEIR LIVES DRAWN TOGETHER BY A BEAUTIFUL SILK DRESSTextiles historian Jo Baaker returns to the Dutch island where she was born, to investigate the provenance of a valuable seventeenth-century silk dress retrieved from a sunken shipwreck. Her research leads her to Anna Tesseltje, a poor Amsterdam laundress who served on the fringes of the Dutch court.But how did Anna come to possess such a precious dress? Jo is convinced the truth lies hidden between its folds, but as she gets closer to Anna's history, haunting details of her own past emerge.

After working in the media sector for many years, Lauren Chater turned her passion for reading and research into a professional pursuit.The Lace Weaver was her debut, and her most recent novel isThe Winter Dress. She is currently completing her Masters of Cultural Heritage through Deakin University in Victoria, Australia.