“It's a wonderful book . . . [Montefiore] really tries to tell you what the life of the city has been like . . . why it means so much to everyone and why it’s so spectacular. You fall in love with the city and it breaks your heart that people can’t make peace over it, because it’s a treasure.” 
 —President Bill Clinton, #1 holiday book pick on the Today Show
 
“Magnificent . . . The city’s first ‘biography’—a panoptic narrative of its rulers and citizens, heroes and villains, harlots and saints . . . Montefiore barely misses a trick or a character in taking us through the city’s story with compelling, breathless tension.”
—Norman Lebrecht,Wall Street Journal
 
“Impossible to put down . . . A vastly enjoyable chronicle [with] many fascinating asides . . . Montefiore has a fine eye for the telling detail, and also a powerful feel for a good story.”
—Jonathan Rosen,New York Times Book Review
 
“This is a fittingly vast and dazzling portrait of Jerusalem, utterly compelling from start to finish.”
—Christopher Hart,Sunday Times(UK)

“Immensely readable . . . Montefiore is that rarest of things: a historian who writes great, weighty tomes that read like the best thrillers . . . He has a visceral understanding of what makes history worth reading.”
—Philip Kerr,Newsweek
 
“Ambitious and arresting. . . A powerful achievement, erudite without pedantry, and intimate with the complex archaeology of the city on the ground. In the matter of competing faiths, it is all but pitch-perfect . . .Jerusalem: The Biography is a double-headed book: at once a scholarly record and an exuberantly written popular tour de force.”
—Colin Thubron,New York Review of Books

“Sweeping and absorbing . . . Montefiore is a master of colorful and telling details and anecdotes . . . His account is admirably dispassionate and balanced.”
—Jackson Diehl,Washington Post Book World

“Magisterial . . . As a writer, Montefiore has an elegant turn of phrase and an unerring ear for the anecdote that will cut to the heart of a story . . . It is this kind of detail that makesJerusalema particular joy to read.”
—The Economist 
 
“Simon Sebag Montefiore’s magnificent biography of Jerusalem has all the grandeur and sweep of her 3,000-year history. His masterful research and his gift for bringing it all to life make this fascinating work a treasure-trove for scholars and laymen alike.”
—Henry Kissinger

“In his stunningly comprehensive history, Simon Sebag Montefiore covers 3,000-plus years of the Earth’s most fiercely contested piece of geography . . . Not only has Montefiore delivered a piece of superb scholarship, he has done so in an extremely easy-to-read style. The author tells the history of the complex relationships that existed between long-dead peoples in a manner that makes them seem human and understandable.”
—Imre Lake,Newark Star-Ledger

“A Meisterwerk . . . As one becomes gripped by the rich, pungent detail of the lives of Jerusalem’s rulers and the ruled, it becomes clear why this work was conceived as a biography. It provides a perfect, almost providentially designed, opportunity for one of our greatest biographers to display every one of his skills. Montefiore has a novelist’s eye, a great journalist’s nose and a great historian’s touch . . . He manages to construct a history that no fair-minded reader can conclude is anything other than judicious, nuanced, balanced, and sensitive . . . When history is written this way one can never have too much.” 
—Michael Gove,Times(UK)

“Already a classic—a gripping and thought-provoking study of the city whose modern religious, political and ethnic rivalries can be understood only in the context of its preceding 3,000 years of history. Montefiore writes with verve, sensitivity and a keen eye for the entertaining historical detail.” 
—Financial Times
 
“A masterly, vastly entertaining, and timely book . . . Montefiore succeeds because of the power of his storytelling. [He] has an unerring eye for the vivid detail to illustrate his point and the telling quote to place it in context . . . Some fascinating sources are entirely new to English readers . . . This is a compelling narrative and an important book.” 
—Victor Sebestyen, Evening Standard 
 
“An astoundingly ambitious, triumphantly epic history of the city . . . Montefiore’s achievement, in fashioning a fluent narrative out of such daunting material, can hardly be praised enough . . . A marvellous book.”
—Tom Holland,The Sunday Telegraph
 
“Montefiore’s book, packed with fascinating and often grisly detail, is a gripping account of war, betrayal, looting, rape, massacre, sadistic torture, fanaticism, feuds, persecution, corruption, hypocrisy, and spirituality.”  
—Antony Beevor,Guardian 
 
“An outstanding work . . . Anyone who has a role to play [in the future of Jerusalem] would do well to read this superbly objective, elegantly written, and highly entertaining book.” 
—Saul David,Mail on Sunday 

 “This is an essential book for those who wish to understand a city that remains a nexus of world affairs . . . Although his Jewish family has strong links to the city, Montefiore scrupulously sustains balance and objectivity . . . Beautifully written, absorbing.”
—Jay Freeman,Booklist(starred)
 
“A panoramic narrative of Jerusalem, organized chronologically and delivered with magisterial flair. Spanning eras from King David to modern Israel with rich anecdotes and vivid detail, this exceptional volume portrays the personalities and worldviews of the dynasties and families that shaped the city throughout its 3,000-year history.”
—Publishers Weekly(starred)
 
“Jerusalem has been the subject [of] surprisingly few single-authored books aimed at retracing her uniquely varied, long and rich history. Simon Sebag Montefiore, to whom we already owe a debt for his magisterial biography of Stalin, has daringly attempted just that . . . He has both read voraciously, and made excellent use of family archives . . . This reviewer, resident in the Jewish part of Jerusalem, was impressed by Sebag Montefiore’s ability to find the right tone, and to retain a fair approach to Jerusalem’s history . . . A lively book.”
—Guy G. Stroumsa,Times Literary Supplement(UK)

“Totally gripping . . . Montefiore’s history of Jerusalem is a labour of love and scholarship. It is a considerable achievement to have created a sense of pace and variety throughout his 3,000-year narrative. He has a wonderful ear for the absurdities and the adventurers of the past.”    
—Barnaby Rogerson,Independent 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Publisher ‏ : ‎Knopf
• Publication date ‏ : ‎October 25, 2011
• Edition ‏ : ‎2nd prt.
• Language ‏ : ‎English
• Print length ‏ : ‎688 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎0307266516
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎978-0307266514
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎2.7 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎6.67 x 2.2 x 9.61 inches

About the author

Simon Sebag Montefiore

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Simon Sebag Montefiore is the internationally bestselling author of prize-winning history and novels. HIs books are now published in 48 languages.

His latest book is THE WORLD: A FAMILY HISTORY - a history of humanity, unlike any previous world history: it uses family, the one thing all humans have in common, to tell the story. It is genuinely global, spanning all eras and all continents, from the perspective of places as diverse as Haiti, Congo and Cambodia as well as Europe, China and America. From the stone age to the drone age, it features a cast of extraordinary span and diversity: as well as rulers and conquerors there are priests, prophets, charlatans, artists, scientists, doctors, tycoons, gangsters, rockstars, lovers, husbands, wives and children. All human drama is here - all the way to Putin and Zelensky. A dazzling achievement as spellbinding as fiction, The World is both a celebration and an indictment that takes the human story, in a single narrative by a master storyteller.

He is the author of a Russian Quartet on Russian potentates: THE ROMANOVS: the story of the Russian Empire 1613-1918; CATHERINE THE GREAT & POTEMKIN: Love, Power and the Russian Empire; YOUNG STALIN and STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR.

His wider history of the Middle East, JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, chronicles the Holy City and the region, covering from pre-history to 2020, from King David to today.

He has curated two anthologies of speeches and letters - VOICES OF HISTORY: SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD and WRITTEN IN HISTORY: LETTERS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.

As a novelist, he is the author of the Moscow Trilogy: SASHENKA, ONE NIGHT IN WINTER and Red Sky at Noon.

Montefiore has written a series of childrens’ novels - ROYAL RABBITS OF LONDON - with Santa Montefiore.

Montefiore has won prizes for his works, both non-fiction and fiction. His novel, ONE NIGHT IN WINTER won the Best Political Novel of the Year Prize (UK) and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize. CATHERINE THE GREAT & POTEMKIN was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson, Duff Cooper, and Marsh Biography Prizes (UK). STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards. YOUNG STALIN won the Costa Biography Award (UK), the LA Times Book Prize for Biography (USA), Le Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique (France) and the Kreisky Prize for Political Literature (Austria). JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY has now sold over a million cover internationally: it won the Wenjin Book of the Year Prize (awarded by the Library of China, People's Republic of China) and the Book of the Year Prize from the Jewish Book Council (USA). THE ROMANOVS won the Lupicaia del Terriccio Literature Prize (Italy), was chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey's Books of the Year (USA).

Many of his books are now being developed as TV drama series or movies.

Montefiore read history at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University where he was awarded his Doctorate of Philosophy. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Visiting Professor at the University of Buckingham, Dr Montefiore has written and presented fiver BBC TV series including Jerusalem (2011); Rome (2012) and Istanbul/Constantinople - 'Byzantium: a tale of 3 cities' (2013); Spain - 'Blood & Gold' (2015) and Vienna (2016).

Follow the author on twitter: @simonmontefiore. On Instagram: @simonsebag_montefiore

For more information: www.simonsebagmontefiore.com

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