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.
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.
Evocative, subversive and rich with unforgettable characters, The Bookbinder of Jericho is
a story about knowledge – who gets to make it, who gets to access it, and what is lost
when it is withheld

The follow-up and companion to one of the most successful Australian novels ever, The Dictionary of Lost Words