This is another well-researched feminist historical fiction by English Australian author Pip Williams. It is a sequel to, or a companion volume to The Dictionary of Lost Words, set in Oxford during WW1.

Peggy and her twin sister Maude work as bindery girls at the Oxford University Press and live aboard a ramshackle canal boat Calliope, as full of books as a floating library. Peggy loves reading and dreams of attending University, although this seems an impossibility for a girl, particularly one brought up very much as “town” rather than “gown.” Maude is never given a diagnosis in the book, but possibly has some form of autism. She loves origami and struggles to express herself other than repeating fragments she has heard. The war brings many changes and new people into their lives including the very damaged Belgian refugee Lotte, the wounded Bastiaan and the high society Gwen. There are also letters from the front, including from their feisty, suffragette godmother-figure Tilda.

The book gives insight into the Belgian crisis during WWI, when over 200,000 Belgians sought refuge in Britain, the influenza pandemic, and the ins and outs of how to bind a book (probably far too much detail on the latter).

I loved the descriptions of the relationship between Maude and Peggy, and its changing dynamic. This book told a good story, although it was very slow moving in parts and tending to get bogged down in minutiae. It was good, but not as stunning as the reviews make out, and not as impacting as The Dictionary of Lost Words. ( )

Thanks so much to Netgalley 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. ( )

I fell in love with this book, and I didn't want to be over it. Luckily I had "The dictionary of lost words" right after. I traveled in Jericho, and it was such a beautiful trip. ( )

Pip Williams writes softly, so softly that she allows you time to embrace her characters, their surroundings and the opportunity to know them intimately. Her writing requires attention and concentration because she builds upon her story and its occupants every so slowly. There is much to be told but Williams prefers to drop crumbs and allow the reader to come to her/his own conclusion at the appropriate time with just a few words.

Twins, identical but completely different. One “filters conversation like a prism filters light. She broke it down so that each phrase could be understood as an articulation of something singular. The truth of what she said could be inconvenient; sometimes it made life easier to understand her.” The other aware of their differences feeling the need to protect and preserve. Bindery girls folding pages, one not caring about the content, the other inhaling every word, nuance and thought - they couldn’t be more different although they were identical.

“Keep en eye.”
“Watch over.”
“Deep breath.”

On the cusp of World War I the sisters live a basic life, because this is a basic story of a very basic fight, for among other things, the vote for women, a margin of equality for women, and the work that women have done to wage those good fights. The research is immaculate, for one who has no knowledge Williams introduces the reader to Somerville College, The Clarendon Press, The Oxford University Press always reminding that women had to fight for a place in education, had to fight to break the protocols of class. The story ranges from everyday work at the bindery, to the heartbreaking consequences of war and the Spanish Flu, to the friendships and love that take up residence in the lives of the twins, Maude and Peggy, as the days and years pass.

Intrigued by the introduction of “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, it made several appearances and other than addressing a vast myriad of subjects, its inclusion informs and allows the story to embrace the melancholy that Burton wrote about and that Peggy is feeling . It opens the story to the vast ignorance, even by a librarian, of how a book is bound and the segregated sections of the bindery and segues into “a love of learning and overmuch study”. This is an apt description of Peggy and her desire to gain access that is withheld, to matriculate, to be a scholar, to find validation, to be acknowledged.

I enjoyed this book and the attention Pip Williams attributed to her twins, their point in time and circumstances. Her writing is profound in its simplicity with a fine tuned ear to description and dialog. Many, many thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a copy. ( )

Wonderful writing - clear, spare text with not one unnecessary word.
Excellent historical fiction telling of the life and roles of those of different genders and classes, against the backdrop of world war 1.
The sister of the protagonist has some form of autism, but is never classified. We gradually become aware of her differences, and abilities, but never explicitly - shown, not told.
I was captivated. ( )