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Jerusalem

On sale

17th April 2014

Price: £30

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Selected: Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781409155874
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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

MAIL ON SUNDAY
Outstanding, superbly objective, elegantly written and highly entertaining
THE TIMES
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
SUNDAY BUSINESS POST
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 TELEGRAPH
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.
NORTHERN ECHO
This is a city that has survived Hell, and Montefiore takes you to the heart of it
CATHOLIC HERALD
Heterogenous, sprawling, erudite and touched by genius
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Astoundingly ambitious and triumphantly epic history of the city
DAILY MAIL
Never a dull moment
THE EXAMINER
Full of faith, power, slaughter and fanaticism; this is a unique chronicle, balanced and critical and wonderfully entertaining.
TATLER
A brilliantly detailed history... as entertaining as it is erudite
DAILY EXPRESS
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.
THE WORD MAGAZINE
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.
SUNDAY TIMES
A fittingly vast and dazzling portrait of Jerusalem, utterly compelling from start to finish
INDEPENDENT
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