The Bookbinder by Pip Williams

Peggy Jones, 21, and her twin sister Maude fold and gather sections of books at the Oxford University Press before and during World War I. They live on a narrowboat moored on a canal, with friends on a nearby boat.

Peggy is occasionally scolded for reading the pages as she folds them, and enjoys bringing home sections of books that weren’t good enough to bind.

Maude loves to fold paper, and makes paper stars at home. She doesn’t talk much, mostly echoing phrases she hears other people say. Lotte, a Belgian refugee, starts working at the binder. She finds Maude’s company soothing, so that Peggy can volunteer, along with posh Gwen, to read to injured soldiers, including Bastian, a gravely injured Belgian.

Suffragette Tilda, their late mother’s close friend, volunteers as a nurse’s aide and is sent to a hospital near the front. Her letters to Maude and Peggy, sent through an acquaintance to avoid the censors, keep them informed about life on the front. The war and the influenza epidemic certainly do not make for cheerful reading, but the characters, setting and plot really drew me into the story.

This book made me want to visit Oxford again, or at least reread Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. Peggy seems real—her dreams, struggles, good and bad choices, and her daily life. Tiffany Girls by Shelley Noble is a good readalike. This was a remarkable read, and will be published later in July.