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The Bookbinder of Jericho

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Brief Description
Winner of ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year 2024 Winner of Booktopia Book of the Year 2024 Shortlisted for Indie Book Awards Shortlisted for Dymocks Book of the Year Longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2023 What is lost when knowledge is withheld? In... Read More
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The follow-up and companion to one of the most successful Australian novels ever, The Dictionary of Lost Words

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Winner of ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year 2024

Winner of Booktopia Book of the Year 2024

Shortlisted for Indie Book Awards

Shortlisted for Dymocks Book of the Year

Longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2023

What is lost when knowledge is withheld?

In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of studying at Oxford University, but for most of her life, she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her.

When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters' lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.

The Bookbinder of Jericho is a story about knowledge - who makes it, who can access it, and what is lost when it is withheld. In this beautiful companion to the international bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams explores another little-known slice of history seen through women's eyes. Intelligent, thoughtful and rich with unforgettable characters, this is the novel of 2023.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781922992925

Publisher: Affirm Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 26 March 2024

Country: Australia

Imprint: Affirm Press

DIMENSIONS

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 480g

Pages: 448

About the Author

Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney and now lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her family and an assortment of animals. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher, studying what keeps us well and what helps us thrive, and she is the author of One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family's travels in search of the good life, which was published by Affirm Press to wide acclaim. Her first novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives, was published in 2020 and became an international bestseller. The Bookbinder of Jericho is her second novel, a companion to The Dictionary of Lost Words, and again combines her talents for historical research and beautiful storytelling.

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  • The Dictionary of Lost Words
    In 1901, the word 'Bondmaid' was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the 'Scriptorium', a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for...
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  • One Italian Summer
    Pip and Shannon dreamed of living the good life. They wanted to slow down, grow their own food, and spend more time with the people they love. But jobs and responsibilities got in the way: their chooks died, their fruit rotted, and Pip ended up depressed and in therapy. So they did the only reasonable thing - they quit their...
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  • Dictionary of Lost Words: The Play
    In 1901, the word 'bondmaid' was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme's place is...
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    The love story of the year: a breathtaking new novel from the author of global bestsellers The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. A tale of love between enemies behind the lines of WW1 and the Australian artist who captures their secret. This is a story about desire. France, 1915. An English nurse and German doctor fall...
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  • The Dictionary of Lost Words: Reese's Book Club
    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER β€’ REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK β€’ β€œDelightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded.”—The New York Times Book Review β€œA marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress.”—Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of People...
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    What is lost when knowledge is withheld? In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of studying...
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