
The Bookbinder of Jericho
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Annabelle Tudor
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By:
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Pip Williams
About this listen
A young British woman working in a book bindery gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when World War I upends her life in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Dictionary of Lost Words.
“Williams spins an immersive and compelling tale, sweeping us back to the Oxford she painted so expertly in The Dictionary of Lost Words.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrow boat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press.
Ambitious, intelligent Peggy has been told for most of her life that her job is to bind the books, not read them—but as she folds and gathers pages, her mind wanders to the opposite side of Walton Street, where the female students of Oxford’s Somerville College have a whole library at their fingertips. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has: to spend her days folding the pages of books in the company of the other bindery girls. She is extraordinary but vulnerable, and Peggy feels compelled to watch over her.
Then refugees arrive from the war-torn cities of Belgium, sending ripples through the Oxford community and the sisters’ lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can educate herself and use her intellect, not just her hands. But as war and illness reshape her world, her love for a Belgian soldier—and the responsibility that comes with it—threaten to hold her back.
The Bookbinder is a story about knowledge—who creates it, who can access it, and what truths get lost in the process. Much as she did in the international bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams thoughtfully explores another rarely seen slice of history through women’s eyes.
Critic reviews
"“The Bookbinder is a confident and considered sequel that complicates Williams’s literary universe while riffing on class, family, trauma and remembrance. Williams fully inhabits the world of the bindery and it shows—there’s hardly a page out of place.”—The Guardian
“A brilliant exploration of who has access to knowledge and the experience of women during wartime.”—Good Weekend
“Pip Williams spins an immersive and compelling tale, sweeping us back to the Oxford she painted so expertly in The Dictionary of Lost Words. This time, as England is plunged into the Great War, women like Peggy Jones, long held back and underestimated, have an unexpected chance to show their strength, follow their deepest longings, and bravely step into lives larger than the ones the world has pinned them too. Williams is a fresh, exciting new voice in historical fiction.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
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Thanks to the author for bringing the unsung women of bookbinding into view.
Enjoyable
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I enjoyed the author's novel "Dictionary of Lost Words". For that reason and the premise of this novel in the editor's summary. A very good idea for a story line, But the writing, the delivery and the narration tone could not hold my interest in this audible version.
I could not finish
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Good from beginning to end
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Wonderful book!
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A superbly narrated insight into women's life on the home front during WW I.
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the class difference in England
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Beautiful and compelling
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Brilliant historical fiction 
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Excellent historical fiction
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