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Table of Contents
About The Book
A Reese's Book Club Pick, international bestseller, and the historical novel readers can't stop recommending.
While men wrote the dictionary, she collected the words they left behind.
Oxford, 1901.
As a child, Esme spends her days hidden beneath the sorting table where a team of scholars is creating the very first Oxford English Dictionary. She is expected to remain silent and unseen.
Then she discovers a discarded word.
When Esme rescues the word bondmaid from being lost forever, she begins collecting other words that have been overlooked, neglected, or deliberately excluded. As she grows up, she realizes that words describing women's lives are often missing from the dictionary—and from history itself.
Determined to preserve the stories nobody else values, Esme begins creating a dictionary of her own. One that captures the voices, experiences, and words that others have chosen to forget.
Heartfelt, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable, The Dictionary of Lost Words is a bestselling historical novel about language, love, and the extraordinary power of being heard.
While men wrote the dictionary, she collected the words they left behind.
Oxford, 1901.
As a child, Esme spends her days hidden beneath the sorting table where a team of scholars is creating the very first Oxford English Dictionary. She is expected to remain silent and unseen.
Then she discovers a discarded word.
When Esme rescues the word bondmaid from being lost forever, she begins collecting other words that have been overlooked, neglected, or deliberately excluded. As she grows up, she realizes that words describing women's lives are often missing from the dictionary—and from history itself.
Determined to preserve the stories nobody else values, Esme begins creating a dictionary of her own. One that captures the voices, experiences, and words that others have chosen to forget.
Heartfelt, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable, The Dictionary of Lost Words is a bestselling historical novel about language, love, and the extraordinary power of being heard.
Appearances
SEP 30
6:30PM
In Person
Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace
380 Military Rd
Cremorne , NSW 2090
OCT 1
6:30PM
In Person
The Federation Conference Centre
37 Reservoir Road
Surry Hills, NSW 2010
OCT 6
6:15PM
In Person
The Phee Theatre
212 Baker St
Castlemaine, VIC 3450
OCT 7
6:00PM
In Person
The Capital
50 View St
Bendigo, VIC 3550
About The Author
Photograph by Ben Kelly
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.
Product Details
- Publisher: Affirm Press (March 31, 2020)
- Length: 402 pages
- ISBN13: 9781922400024
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Author Photo (jpg): Pip Williams Photograph by Ben Kelly(0.1 MB)
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