THE BOOKBINDER OF JERICHO by Pip Williams

One of the most anticipated Australian novels of 2023 has been The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams.

One of the most anticipated Australian novels of 2023 has been The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams. A companion novel to her smash hit The Dictionary of Lost Words, the new novel is based on Oxford , England during World War 1, with some characters who appeared in Dictionary returning to Bookbinder.

I was looking forward to this novel because I absolutely LOVED Dictionary. So much so, I went to an author talk/interview with Pip Williams last week in Meanjin (Brisbane).

The main character is a young woman, Peggy, who works at the Oxford University Press bindery. She folds and sews the books used by academics, libraries and readers in England and beyond. Peggy started working there, as her mother did, aged 12, accompanied by her identical twin sister, Maude. We establish early that Maude has what I would call a mild intellectual disability, which makes her somewhat reliant on Peggy. They live on a narrowboat in Jericho, near the ladies college, Somerville.

Peggy clearly has the intelligence and the talent to go to the university, but for the fact she left school early and lives in relative poverty. It is also clear she resents that she cannot live the life she dreamed of, due to her lack of education and her commitment to Maude. Their mother died a few years earlier, leaving the girls alone.

The story is set against the timeline of World War 1 and the challenges that presented to England and the roles women stepped into, in the absence of men. There is a distinctly feminist novel, tapping into Peggy’s frustration that she does not have the rights that men do (such as voting) while being expected to perform their jobs, in the home and the workplace.

The star character of The Bookbinder of Jericho is Maude - while presenting as with disability, it seems to me that she is the most astute, clear thinking person amongst this cast. She brought humour, warmth and insight. Peggy is less likeable, although not unlikeable, as I have seen her elsewhere described. I think she is a woman frustrated by the lack of choices she perceives herself to have. What I would concede, though, is that Peggy was not a character who will stay with me, as Esme did from Dictionary. For me, that honour is Maude’s.

My biggest gripe about Dictionary was that it felt like a sudden ending - it was going along beautifully and felt like it suddenly stopped. This novel does not suffer the same fate, but instead was slow to get going and slow to engage. It got there eventually, but it took too long and I was feeling almost resentful for having to push through it. It paid off - but honestly, only just.

If you loved Dictionary, you will like this book too but I felt a bit disappointed. It is always hard to follow up a global smash hit novel, and I wonder if writing a companion placed too much pressure on Williams - if it was perhaps almost destined to not match up, regardless of how good a writer Williams is or how solid the plot might have been.

Overall - I liked The Bookbinder of Jericho but I didn’t love it.