Book Notes | ‘The Bookbinder’ by Pip Williams
The story takes place in Oxford, England, between 1914 and 1920. As men are sent to the continent to fight in the Great War, women in England work to keep the nation going.
Peggy and Maude are twin sisters who work together binding books for the Oxford University Press. Maude has unspecified cognitive challenges that make her vulnerable. Peggy feels the responsibility to watch out for her sister in the bookbindery and at home.
The twins live on a narrowboat in town, working together at the bookbindery. While Maude is happy with the work and her life, Peggy dreams of more. Across from the bookbindery is Somerville College, one of the first colleges in Oxford to admit women. Peggy’s love of reading, instilled by her mother, leads her to yearn to be educated among the women she sees at Somerville coming and going.
As the story unfolds, Peggy meets a Somerville student who befriends her and helps her see that attending Somerville may be possible. The war becomes more personal as she befriends a Belgium refugee. Peggy is torn as she tries to balance her dream of reading literature at Somerville and her responsibilities to others. The story raises questions as to who has access to knowledge and how the Great War challenges assumptions and the status quo in England.
Overall, the UMRA Book Club enjoyed the book, thought it started out slowly. Many readers commented on the variety of characters they “connected with” as the story evolved. Some mentioned that WWI was less familiar context for them than stories embedded in WWII, and they enjoyed learning more about that earlier era in England.
—Kathleen Cramer, UMRA Book Club I
The Bookbinder
Fri, Aug 16, 2024, 2pm
Kathy Cramer will lead the discussion of The Bookbinder by Pip Williams when the UMRA book club meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, August 16. The book is set in 1914 Oxford and chronicles the life of Peggy who works in the University bindery but craves a life beyond binding books but to being a scholar herself.
Email Pat Tollefson at [email protected] for more information.
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