The Bookbinder (2023) is a work of literary fiction by Australian author Pip Williams. The novel focuses on the life of a young woman named Peggy Jones, who works in the bindery at Oxford University Press. Peggy longs to attend Somerville College, Oxford’s college for women, but fears she will never have the opportunity because she is the primary caretaker for her identical twin sister, Maude. When World War I changes their world, introducing new friends and new challenges, Peggy finds that both she and Maude might be more resilient than she thought. The novel explores The Difficulties of Crossing Social Boundaries, The Challenge and Possibility of Healing After War, and The Legacy of Literature and Ideas.

Williams’s debut novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, was a New York Times bestseller and a Reese’s Book Club pick. The Bookbinder is set in the same world as the earlier novel.

This guide uses the US first edition published by Ballantine Books.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature descriptions of graphic wartime violence, sexual content, and death of a child.

Plot Summary

Peggy Jones lives in the town of Oxford in the lower-class neighborhood known as Jericho. Peggy quit school at a young age to work at the bindery for the Oxford University Press. Peggy and her identical twin sister, Maude, live on a narrowboat named Calliope that is anchored in the canal near the river. Peggy likes to sneak peeks at the interior of the books she helps fold and assemble. When she can, she brings home books that have been damaged. Her mother, Helen, also loved collecting books and reading to the girls, which inspired Peggy’s love of literature. Peggy longs to study at Somerville College, Oxford University’s college for women, but after their mother died when the girls were 17, Peggy was left to look after her sister, Maude, who is not able to live independently.

When Britain joins the war in Europe in 1914, several men at the Press volunteer for the Army, among them the Jones’ neighbor, Jack Rowntree. Work in the women’s side of the Press continues. A friend of their mother’s, Tilda, who is an actress and a suffragette, joins the Voluntary Aid Department and trains as a nurse. Peggy is asked by a worker at the Press, Mr. Owen, to help him fold and bind pages for a special dictionary of women’s words that he is making for his sweetheart, Esme Nicoll. Peggy is captivated by the idea and helps Mr. Owen create his gift.

Oxford welcomes refugees from Belgium who have been displaced by German attacks on their city. Several are from Louvain, and one woman, Lotte, comes to work at the Press. Lotte was a librarian at the Catholic University in Louvain, which the German army burned down. Lotte takes an interest in Maude, which initially makes Peggy feel a bit overlooked. Tilda is sent to the nursing facilities in Étaples, France, but some of what she writes is blacked out by censors.

Feeling the need to do something useful, Peggy volunteers to visit wounded soldiers who are filling the makeshift hospitals in Oxford, some of them in University buildings. She meets a young Somerville student, Gwen, who befriends Peggy and becomes her volunteer partner. Peggy realizes she can’t leave Maude unsupervised, but Lotte and their neighbor, Rosie, both offer to spend time with Maude while Peggy volunteers.

One of Peggy’s patients is a young Belgian man, Bastiaan, who has been so severely injured that, when Peggy meets him, the only part of his body unbandaged is one eye. When Peggy is invited to an event at Somerville College, she sneaks into the library and steals a book, which turns out to be a primer on Greek grammar. After Somerville College is turned into a temporary hospital and Bastiaan is moved there, Peggy visits all the time. She and Bastiaan become close and continue to see each other after he is released. Meanwhile, Tilda writes that she is nursing Jack, who will recover, but Jack’s lieutenant, Mr. Owen, was killed. At the Press, they decide to print more copies of Women’s Words in Mr. Owen’s honor, and Peggy helps. When an officer at the hospital complains that Peggy is of a lower class than he is, Peggy quits volunteering.

As the war continues, Tilda’s postcards become more and more dispirited. She has been assigned to nurse German prisoners and knows she could be reprimanded for growing close to their doctor, Hugo. Peggy is upset to learn that, one night while she was with Bastiaan, Maude dressed up, went out, and met a strange man. She also learns that Lotte’s son was killed in the attack on Louvain, and Lotte is struggling to cope with this loss. Jack, Maude, and then Peggy become ill with what they later learn is influenza. Tilda visits on leave; she is shaken from overwork, the unending surgeries, and the injuries she sees.

Gwen suggests that Peggy sit for the entrance exams at Somerville College and thinks Peggy could be awarded a full scholarship. Peggy is initially hesitant about pursuing this dream, even though she longs for it. Gwen arranges for Peggy to study at the Somerville College library. Although others question why Peggy is on campus, the librarian, Miss Garnell, welcomes and supports her. Peggy loves history, English, and the classics, but fears she will never learn Ancient Greek. She becomes consumed with study and turns down Bastiaan’s proposal of marriage.

Peggy passes the entrance exam and is offered a full scholarship, but there is a second exam that she fails, and she doesn’t get into the college. She is devastated and initially angry at all the people who encouraged her to try for more in her life. She reconciles with Bastiaan and spends her extra time volunteering for the Red Cross.

Maude and Lotte volunteer, too, and Lotte has an emotional outburst when the son of one of their patients dies. Lotte falls ill with influenza and dies. Peggy is promoted to the position of reader at the Press and realizes Maude doesn’t need her as much as she thought. When the war ends, Peggy wonders what will happen next for them. Jack returns home and takes comfort in Maude’s presence, while Peggy cannot decide what to do about Bastiaan. She still longs for Somerville, but thinks that opportunity is over until Gwen reveals that she herself failed the entrance exams twice.

The Epilogue of the book shows Peggy reading a letter from Bastiaan, who has returned to Belgium. He has completed his studies to be an architect and is part of the team hired to rebuild the library at Louvain. He hopes Peggy will come join him. Peggy has won a full scholarship to Somerville and has her own room at the College. Tilda, Maude, and Jack join Peggy to watch Gwen and the previous female graduates of Oxford University being granted degrees for the first time.