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Pip Williams - The German Ward

Author In Conversation

A tale of love between enemies behind the lines of WW1 and the Australian artist who captures their secret.

This is a story about desire.

France, 1915. An English nurse and German doctor fall in love. He is a prisoner of war; she has never cared for rules. Their love is visceral and urgent, forbidden and doomed, and it would have gone unrecorded if not for a series of drawings found more than a century later.

At first the drawings seem insignificant, but the woman who finds them glimpses moments of intimacy and can’t look away. The images become part of a puzzle she wants to solve: who were the lovers, what became of them, and what story of war was the artist trying to tell?

In this luminous tale of hope in the midst of darkness, Pip Williams expands the world of her bestselling novels, The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. Sensual and sophisticated, The German Ward shows one of Australia’s most significant writers reaching the height of her skills. 

About the author:

Pip Williams 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. 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.  Pip’s books have been published around the world and translated into more than 30 languages.

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$20 or $10 for concession/students

Due to the expected popularity of this event, tickets will be limited to two per registration.

Book sales and author signings will be offered at the conclusion of the event.

If you need any assistance in order to participate in this event, please contact events@grlc.vic.gov.au at least two weeks prior to the event date.

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