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A review by luluwoohoo
The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
☀️☀️☀️☀️🌥️
At its heart, this book is a love letter to books and dreaming of more, to connection and the difficult choices we all must make to be true to who we are.
Despite being a companion piece to "The Dictionary of Lost Words", this story stands comfortably on its own. It successfully carries the same style of historical fiction with a focus on women's work - this time bookbinding - through the backdrop of war, but feels much broader scale through the epistolary interludes from overseas throughout. It balances the darkness of war, grief, loss with the discoveries of love, hope and a brighter future skilfully.
The slow pace and subtle plot is a problem in the first third, but as the relationships between characters grow and expand the book itself definitely becomes better. Peggy's perspective as a low class female worker paints a vivid picture of the liminal space WWI created, opening potential doors for her education and growth as an individual, separate from her previous identity entwined with twin sister Maude.
I appreciate the time Williams took to research all things bookbinding, printing, nursing and the psychological impacts of war. The textures she paints with emotional maturity don't feel gratuitous or pandering, and the ending feels totally believable with regards to what was both gained and lost from those years.
This is a wonderful book that makes me appreciate the power of books ❤️
☀️☀️☀️☀️🌥️
At its heart, this book is a love letter to books and dreaming of more, to connection and the difficult choices we all must make to be true to who we are.
Despite being a companion piece to "The Dictionary of Lost Words", this story stands comfortably on its own. It successfully carries the same style of historical fiction with a focus on women's work - this time bookbinding - through the backdrop of war, but feels much broader scale through the epistolary interludes from overseas throughout. It balances the darkness of war, grief, loss with the discoveries of love, hope and a brighter future skilfully.
The slow pace and subtle plot is a problem in the first third, but as the relationships between characters grow and expand the book itself definitely becomes better. Peggy's perspective as a low class female worker paints a vivid picture of the liminal space WWI created, opening potential doors for her education and growth as an individual, separate from her previous identity entwined with twin sister Maude.
I appreciate the time Williams took to research all things bookbinding, printing, nursing and the psychological impacts of war. The textures she paints with emotional maturity don't feel gratuitous or pandering, and the ending feels totally believable with regards to what was both gained and lost from those years.
This is a wonderful book that makes me appreciate the power of books ❤️
"Reading was such a quiet activity, and the reader in their parlour or leaning against the trunk of a tree would never imagine all the hands their book had been through, all the folding and cutting and beating it had endured. They would never guess how noisy and smelly the life of that book had been before it was put in their hands. I loved that I knew this. That they didn't."