The Bookbinder isn’t exactly a sequel to The Dictionary of Lost Words, but it follows slightly in its footsteps. Peggy and Maude are twin sisters, but vastly different. Their now dead mother was a reader and encouraged Peggy’s curiosity. But Maude is slow and vulnerable, happy to fold paper into shapes. Both work for a book bindery of the Oxford University Press. Peggy steals the damaged works to take home to their narrowboat to read at night. She desires more from life, but feels obligated to look after Maude. She looks across at Somerville College, the women’s arm of Oxford University and imagines herself a “gown”, not a “town”.
The book takes place during WWI. Belgians arrive in Oxford from Lavain, the site of a brutal German massacre. One of those refugees is Lotte, who comes to work at the bindery and helps Peggy realize that Maude is not as helpless as Peggy thinks. Peggy also befriends Bastiaan, an injured Belgian soldier who comes to Oxford to recuperate.
Williams paints a detailed picture of life being forced to go on, despite the men mostly being called away. Women are offered opportunities to step into jobs previously denied. It was also a time when the distinction between the classes occasionally blurred, as when Peggy meets Gwen. But at the same time, Peggy has to remind Gwen that only Gwen will be allowed to vote. Or when a recovering officer still calls for Peggy to be removed from the officer’s ward and sent to help her own kind. As with the best historical fiction, Williams’s research allowed me to learn something while enjoying the story.
The writing makes it easy to imagine each detail, from the book crammed Calliope to the graceful dance of bookbinding to the field hospital in Etaples. The characters are all fully fleshed out, even the secondary characters.
The story is a heartwarming tale of growth and acting upon one’s dreams, of not giving up. But it’s also a story with horrible loss, given the twin demons of war and influenza. It’s a reminder that not all dreams can be achieved, that obtaining one might mean relinquishing others. And that peace will come with a cost, a reminder of what the women will once again be forced to give up. Lately, many of the books I’ve read deal with women as invisible beings and this continues that trend. That at the end, there will be no monuments to the women who toiled and sacrificed.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House - Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this book.

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. This was a new author to me. I have her other book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, downloaded on my Kindle and plan to read it soon after reading this book. I love her characters--both the quiet ones and the flamboyant one--and she develops them throughout the book in a most believable way. I am a sucker for books about books and thank NetGalley and the publisher for introducing me to this author who I plan to read more of in the future. I also learned how books were originally bound when done by hand which was very interesting.

"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.

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."

Ah yes, the responsibilities of love that can hold you back. I know that all too well.

4/5
I picked this book up because I'm a sucker for any book about books. I love historical fiction too, so I couldn't resist the read.

Peggy is a solid main character. As an identical twin, she deals with many things in her dynamic with Maude. People assume initially they are quite alike, but they aren't. Actually, Maude is one of my favorite parts about this book. Pip Williams does such an excellent job of bringing vivacity and value to Maude even though she is different from most young women. Intellectual disabilities can be difficult to write about without creating a character that is a caricature or seems valueless. Rather, Maude is a delight.

I enjoyed a lot of the other side characters too, but I really just loved learning the history of bookbinding and the impact of World War 1 in the day to day lives of British citizens. It's obvious Williams did her research, and well researched and written books are my favorite to read.

*I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review, all views are my own.

As a pretty avid reader of historical fiction I very much enjoyed this story. Especially learning about the book binding process. The author clearly knows how that works and explains it to the reader well. The storyline and plot were great as well. I enjoyed all the characters and how they interacted. I would recommend this to a friend it was also a quick read which is even better.

I found this book fascinating, especially the actual art of bookbinding. Peggy is told to just fold and not read, but she wants access to all this knowledge. There are many themes and author does a wonderful job tying them all together. I couldn't put this book down.

The Bookbinder
Pip Williams
Pub Date August 1, 2023
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it for readers who like historical fiction, Women’s Fiction, and book history.
I loved this book and look forward to the next book Pip writes.
5 stars

The Bookbinder by Pip Williams is an excellent read! It combines all of my favorites: historical fiction, women's history, and book history. This tale of two sisters working at Oxford University Press during WWI had nicely developed characters and a great plot. Best of all were the descriptions of bookbinding and presswork in the early 20th century. Although I'm not an expert on the topic, I've taken some classes about it and everything in the book really captured what it would have been like to be a "town" resident working at the press. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from Pip Williams!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

“The Bookbinder of Jericho” is a historical fiction novel by Pip Williams. This book is set in England during WWI (aka “The Great War”). This book follows two sisters - Peggy and Maude - who work as bookbinders. Having read many books, I knew the printing process, but never game much thought to the actual binding and folding of the book to create it an actual book (opposed to a pile of papers). I found that side of the story to be rather fascinating and Ms. Williams did a great job explaining the process. Peggy is the main voice, but there is a delightful cast of other characters - from Tilda to Lotte, Jack to Eb, and Gwen to Bastiaan. If one has read Ms. William’s previous book “The Dictionary of Lost Words,” some of these names may be familiar [I haven’t but now I’m interested in doing so]. There’s a lot packed in this book - suffragettes, education opportunities, war, refugees, adapting to live during a war, class struggles, and assumptions. I found this to be a very moving book, as if Ms. Williams took care in crafting the scenes and choosing the precise words. At times I did find the pacing to be a bit slow, but as there’s so much information - sometimes a slow section was appreciated.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

Enjoyed the book. It was a quick read. Any book involving the selling, reading or publishing of books is a must read for me. I am a book nerd and take a chance snd read any book Im presented.

This one was just so good!!! Some I start and struggle to finish, but this one had me reading non stop from cover to cover.

The author has a great writing style. Descriptive characters and setting. Loved to story!

Recommend.

Fascinating historical fiction set in England during World War I. Revolves around women who folded book pages in preparation for binding.Good mix of characters and their unique personalities. Thanks to #NetGalley and TheBookbinder for advanced digital copy.

I really enjoyed this book. Our narrator Peggy is a bright, ambitious bindery worker during WWI. She works alongside Oxford University, but she is a Town and not a Gown. I find this time period very fascinating as the war, the pandemic, and the suffrage movement are all happening at once. We hear about all 3 in this book. There were many interesting characters, but my favorite was Peggy's twin sister Maude. She is written as someone on the spectrum, but I did not find her to be a caricature of such. I also really liked Bastiaan, the Belgian soldier severely injured during Germany's Belgian invasion. I did think the story was a bit long but worth it overall.

Thanks to Netgalley for the book to review.

Pip Williams fashions beautiful prose and unforgettable characters in The Bookbinder, much as she did in her earlier bestseller, The Dictionary of Lost Words. There are a few references to the previous book, but those who haven't read it will not have a problem understanding this one.

The story revolves around 21-year-old twins Peggy and Maude, both of whom work binding and sewing books at the Clarendon Press in Oxford and who live nearby in a narrowboat. Peggy would rather be reading the books and studying at a nearby college, so she often brings home damaged pieces of books she has been working on. But upon the death of her mother, she took on more responsibility for looking after Maude, who is "different" (per the Acknowledgments, she is on the autism spectrum and suffers from echolalia, a compulsion to repeat parts of others' sentences). When World War I turns part of the college into a hospital for injured soldiers, Peggy volunteers to help read and write letters to the patients, and it is there that she meets a young Belgian man, part of whose face has been disfigured, who will play an important role in her life. In the meantime, one of the women fleeing from the conflict in Belgium joins them at the bindery and takes a personal interest in Maude. An outspoken friend of the family, Tilde, works as a nurse in war-torn France and sends the sisters letters with her perspective of the war.

Normally I shy away from war stories, but I'm glad I read this one. Although parts of it are gut-wrenching, the lives of these women, their struggle for rights that the men already have, Peggy's courage to pursue her dreams while torn by her familial responsibilities, all made this a memorable experience for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC*

I loved William's first novel, "The Dictionary of Lost Words", so I was a bit disappointed with this novel.

The ending was somewhat satisfying, but it was anticlimactic.

A couple big themes in the novel are classism, PTSD/trauma, and how stories can be distorted by those who write/control the narrative. Peggy has some seemingly impactful conversations about these themes but there isn't any kind of closure and she doesn't really do anything to resolve these issues. I expected a bigger and more impactful resolution for how big these themes are. I admire that Peggy ended up where she ended up, but it left me wanting more from the plot.

It could be because I'm comparing this novel to Williams' other one. It's hard not to when this is happening at the same time and there are recurring characters. The MC in the other novel saw an injustice and did something about it. Peggy didn't really do anything other than accomplish a personal achievement.

I'm 50/50 on the love story. There were moments that I enjoyed and moments that I thought were meh.

Overall, it was an OK novel. I enjoyed reading about this time period and getting to know the characters. But if I had to pick one of Williams' novels to read, I'd stick with "The Dictionary of Lost Words"

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've had The Dictionary of Lost Words on my TBR list since it was published, but I've never gotten around to reading it. Now that I've read The Bookbinder, I'm moving it straight to the top of my list and putting it on hold at my local library.

What a beautiful novel. It's quiet and moves a little slowly, but I was so immersed in this world of books and war and relationships that I didn't mind at all. Obviously well-researched and then written in a way that makes that research look effortless -- what a feat to pull off!

The Bookbinder is a story about sisters and the people who surround them during World War 1 in England. I really enjoyed this story, it is a comforting and interesting story about these people navigating a turbulent time that also addresses books and knowledge and who gets access to these. I will definitely be seeking out this author's other book as I loved the way that this story was told.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing early access to this ebook, I enjoyed reading it very much.

4.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful book. I did not read her first book and it is not necessary to read this one. It is very character driven and not fast paced but so so good. I loved all of the book details and what it was like to print and bind a book in the early part of the 20th century. The backdrop of World War 1 is very engaging and compelling as well.

Really great book about relationships, classes, genders, and perseverance . I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

I received an ARC of this book from goodreads for my honest review.

Thanks so much for the review copy. I’m glad I gave this author another chance. I plan to go back and finish The Dictionary of Lost Words. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Brilliant, ambitious Peggy takes care of her twin sister Maude, who is a bit slow. In modern days, she would probably be diagnosed with autism. The twins work in a bindery, folding, gathering, and sewing books. Peggy collects the remnants, torn pieces, and scraps of books. As the men leave for the war, refugees arrive from war town Belgium. Peggy slowly allows herself to dream, envisioning herself at the nearby university studying.

I was amazed by the character development throughout the book. The characters really changed and grew with the war. I was particularly touched by Peggy and Maude's relationship, and the care they took for one another. The plot revolved around day-to-day matters, but moved quickly. I would love to read more from this author. 5 out of 5 stars.