"A good gift for arm-chair traveler and ardent bibliophile who appreciates books and libraries." —Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews

In this enthralling book, Merav Mack and Benjamin Balint explore Jerusalem's libraries to tell the story of this city as a place where some of the world's most enduring ideas were put into words. The writers of Jerusalem, although renowned the world over, are not usually thought of as a distinct school; their stories as Jerusalemites have never before been woven into a single narrative. Nor have the stories of the custodians, past and present, who safeguard Jerusalem's literary legacies.

By showing how Jerusalem has been imagined by its writers and shelved by its librarians, Mack and Balint tell the untold history of how the peoples of the book have populated the city with texts. In their hands, Jerusalem itself—perched between East and West, antiquity and modernity, violence and piety—comes alive as a kind of labyrinthine library.

"Enlightening and fascinating." —Jewish Book Council

"Intriguing issues emerge at every turn. . . . What has Jerusalem signified, to whom, and why?"—Lewis Glinert, New Criterion

"A sensitive travelogue . . . eminently readable, full of lovely descriptions and evocative writing." —Jordan Finkin, H-Judaic

"An unparalleled portrait of one of the world's great cities." —Matti Friedman, author of The Aleppo Codex

"Lively, and often surprising." —Miri Rubin, Queen Mary University of London

"A wonderfully wondrous journey." —Cyrus Schayegh, author of The Middle Eastand the Making of the Modern World

"One of the most intimate and beautiful portraits ever written of Jerusalem." —Moshe Halbertal, author of Maimonides: Life and Thought