Overview

The love story of the year: a breathtaking new novel from the author of global bestsellers The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. A tale of love between enemies behind the lines of WW1 and the Australian artist who captures their secret. This is a story about desire. France, 1915. An English nurse and German doctor fall in love. He is a prisoner of war; she has never cared for rules. Their love is visceral and urgent, forbidden and doomed, and it would have gone unrecorded if not for a series of drawings found more than a century later. At first the drawings seem insignificant, but the woman who finds them glimpses moments of intimacy and can’t look away. The images become part of a puzzle she wants to solve: who were the lovers, what became of them, and what story of war was the artist trying to tell? In this luminous tale of hope in the midst of darkness, Pip Williams expands the world of her bestselling novels, The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. Sensual and sophisticated, The German Ward shows one of Australia’s most significant writers reaching the height of her skills.   

Full Product Details

9781923135444

Table of Contents

Reviews

'The German Ward dares to be a love story with substance. Fans of Laura Elvery’s fantastic Nightingale will adore this one. It’s a must read title, on track to be my pick for book of the year.' * <i>The Australian</i> * 'An emotional and engrossing novel about forbidden love ... Highly recommended.' * <i>Time Out</i> * 'Desire underpins the narrative. There is, of course, the sensual desire to be touched, to be loved. But there's a deeper sentiment: the desire for peace, for escape, for death even ... just the desire for everything to be different, to be over. The writing is further evidence of Williams' extraordinary talent. *****'   * <i >Good Reading Magazine</i> * 'Williams’ superb skills with words paint a vivid picture as she gives her characters the voice to tell their own story. *****'  * <i >Weekend Post</i>, Cairns * 'This breathtaking new novel from bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words is the tale of love between enemies in WW1 and the Australian artist who captures their secret.'  * Australian Community Media Syndicated * 'With its multilayered storytelling and rich characterisation, The German Ward uses facets of memoir, art history and archival research to craft a compelling female perspective that deftly encompasses history, war, art and writing.'  * <I>The Saturday Paper</I> * 'Pip Williams says this novel is a love story she had no intention of writing. Lucky for us, she did.' * <i>Spectrum</i> *

Author Information

Pip Williams is the author of social research, essays, memoir, and the occasional poem, but she is best known for her companion novels, The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. Since its publication in 2020, The Dictionary of Lost Words has won a number of major book awards, was chosen for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club and became a New York Times bestseller. As well as being adapted for stage, The Dictionary of Lost Words is being turned into a book concerto and has been optioned for a limited series. Pip’s second novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho, was published in 2023 and was an instant bestseller. In 2024, it won the Australian Book Industry Awards General Fiction Book of the Year and was Dymocks’ number-one book in its Top 101. Both novels were also recognised in ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century. Her upcoming novel, The German Ward, continues her exploration of love, art, and history, bringing to life a vivid World War I story of forbidden love and artistic discovery behind the lines in France. Pip’s books have been published around the world and translated into more than 30 languages.

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