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Jerusalem

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781474614399

Price: £14.99

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A new, updated, revised edition of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, the wider history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City, from King David to today.

The story of Jerusalem is the story of the world.

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilisations. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem.

A classic of modern literature, this is not only the epic story of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and co-existence, but also a freshly-updated history of the entire Middle East, from King David to the twenty-first century, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wars of today. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem – the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.

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Reviews

Full of faith, power, slaughter and fanaticism; this is a unique chronicle, balanced and critical and wonderfully entertaining.
THE EXAMINER
This is a city that has survived Hell, and Montefiore takes you to the heart of it
NORTHERN ECHO
A fittingly vast and dazzling portrait of Jerusalem, utterly compelling from start to finish
SUNDAY TIMES
Astoundingly ambitious and triumphantly epic history of the city
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Outstanding, superbly objective, elegantly written and highly entertaining
MAIL ON SUNDAY
Simon Sebag Montefiore's history of Jerusalem is a labour of love and scholarship... a considerable achievement... he has a wonderful ear for the absurdities and adventurers of the past... totally gripping... vivid compelling, engaged, engrossing, knowledgeable
INDEPENDENT
Compelling and thought-provoking...Working on an immense chronological and thematic canvas Sebag Montefiore does his subject more than justice. He narrates the terrible history of Jerusalem vividly and graphically... fascinating but ghastly.
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Anyone with an interest in history should read this, if only to be reminded of just how much history has rolled back and forth over this pile of stones between 1458 and today. In fact, when compared with the carnage visited on it by the Romans, Crusaders, Albanians and, in the 12th century, the teenage King of Norway, the last 100 years there have been relatively peaceful.
THE WORD MAGAZINE
A scintillating portrait of Jerusalem. Utterly compelling and a moving picture of the city which has one way or another affected civilisation for thousands of years. Sebag Montefiore has become one of the greatest historians of his generation.
DAILY EXPRESS
As entertaining as it is elucidating. It's a history that is sharply paced as a novel and fairly brims over with sparkling writing
SUNDAY BUSINESS POST
Heterogenous, sprawling, erudite and touched by genius
CATHOLIC HERALD
A brilliantly detailed history... as entertaining as it is erudite
TATLER
It is a gripping read, told with verve and fluency, and explains why Jerusalem, like a living person, has touched the heart of so many cultures, East and West, for so long
THE TIMES
Never a dull moment
DAILY MAIL