The Bookbinder Of Jericho Longlisted For ARA Historical Novel Prize
14 September 2023
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the longlist for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize, with Pip Williams' The Bookbinder Of Jericho shortlisted in the adult category. Further information on this title is available below.
The Bookbinder Of Jericho by Pip Williams
Published in large print in August 2023.
Oxford, 1914. When the young men are drawn away to fight, it is the women who must keep going. Twin sisters Peggy and Maude work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of studying - but is often reminded that her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, is extraordinary and vulnerable. She wants nothing more than what she has, and Peggy must watch over her.
When refugees arrive from devastated Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and the sisters' lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future: one 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...