Jerusalem: City of the Book

272 pages. A captivating journey through the hidden libraries of Jerusalem, where some o f the world?s most enduring ideas were put into wordsIn this enthral ling book, Merav Mack and Benjamin Balint explore Jerusalem?s libraries to tel l the story of this city as a place where some of the world?s most enduring id eas were put into words. The writers of Jerusalem, although renowned the world o ver, are not usually thought of as a distinct school; their stories as Jerusalem ites have never before been woven into a single narrative. Nor have the stories of the custodians, past and present, who safeguard Jerusalem?s literary legaci es.By showing how Jerusalem has been imagined by its writers and shelv ed 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 itsel f?perched between East and West, antiquity and modernity, violence and piety? ?comes alive as a kind of labyrinthine library.