Peggy the obscure

Oxford is a favoured setting for novels exploring tensions between town and gown (from Jill Paton Walsh’s renovations of Dorothy Sayers’s texts to R.F. Kuang’s more recent dismantling of power in 'Babel') but Pip Williams’ depiction of 'The Bookbinder of Jericho' embraces issues of language and loyalty that troubled an ancient walled city and not simply a district in a university town in a country fractured by class, education, repressed aspiration or diminished opportunity. At its heart is a love story that celebrates a gift of creation in one man’s restoration of women’s words arbitrarily censored. The bookbinder who sorts, repairs, and steals fragments of revered texts in order to read the byways of a world beyond the ‘lane’ that is Oxford, is an agent registering change at a place and time of world crisis, where words have irremediably tipped order into chaos. Beyond the grand rhetoric, where the limbs of compatriots and enemy are being amputated or the horrors of witness transcend speech, mute silence shouts. Williams’ text is metaphoric, an evocatively nuanced investigation of the power, eloquence, saving grace and inadequacy of the languages of the world’s words. But Williams implies that the narrow boat, with its remnant but resilient human cargo fighting to stay afloat, offers a potential for recovery in the face of change. For its kindness and acuity this generous book will undoubtedly be reread and rightly treasured.

You weren't alone. I bought 'The Dictionary of Lost Words' but was underwhelmed. I couldn't understand the hype. I thought it was unambitious and lacked depth. I'd not thought to read 'The Bookbinder', so thanks for the heads up.