SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE is a historian of Russia and the Middle East. Catherine the Great and Potemkin was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards. Young Stalin won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, the Costa Biography Award, and le Grande Prix de la biographie politique. Jerusalem: The Biography was a worldwide best seller. Montefiore's books are published in more than forty languages. He is the author of the novels Sashenka and One Night in Winter, which won the Paddy Power Political Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2014. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Montefiore graduated from Cambridge University, where he received his PhD. He lives in London. www.simonsebagmontefiore.com
Jewish Book Council Book of the Year Spectacular. [Montefiore]
really tells you what the life of the city has been like and why it
means so much. You fall in love with the city. It's a treasure.
It's a wonderful book.
--Bill Clinton, #1 Holiday Book Pick on the Today show
Magnificent. . . Montefiore barely misses a trick or a character in
taking us through the city's story with compelling, breathless
tension.
--Wall Street Journal
Impossible to put down. . . . Vastly enjoyable.
--New York Times Book Review A powerful achievement. . . .
At once a scholarly record and an exuberantly written popular tour
de force.
--New York Review of Books 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. . . . A joy to
read.
--The Economist Already a classic. Jerusalem is an
extraordinary achievement, written with imagination and energy. . .
. Simon Sebag Montefiore tells this modern story with clarity and
admirable impartiality. . . . Read this book.
--Financial Times
Montefiore's towering biography of the city relates in fascinating,
horrific and sometimes comical detail the wars to annexe its
symbolic sanctity and the daily lives of its inhabitants. This
monument of scholarly research is also a compelling story: of human
foibles, lust, bravery and chicanery.
--The Times of London
Densely textured. . . . Montefiore embraces Jerusalem's paradoxes
in his chronological account, which seeks to avoid hindsight and
disclaims a political agenda. He succeeds admirably in remaining
evenhanded, a particularly notable achievement.
--Los Angeles Times A memorable and distinguished history of
a city where 'the truth is much less important than the myth'. . .
. Splendidly evoked.
--Richmond Times-Dispatch
Magnificent. . . . A spectacular book for general readers. . . .
This is a book about the ages, for the ages.
--Wichita Eagle Sweeping and absorbing. . . . Montefiore is
a master of colorful and telling details and anecdotes. . . . His
account is admirably dispassionate and balanced.
--Washington Post Book World
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. . . . Meticulously researched.
--The Newark Star-Ledger
Few historians have demonstrated the vision, mastery, and boldness
necessary to publish on a subject so vast and in such detail as
Montefiore. . . . A marvelous panorama.
--Library Journal "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."
--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) "An essential text, bathed in
blood, lit with faint hope. . . . The author sees Jerusalem not
just as the setting for some of history's most savage violence but
a microcosm of our world. . . . The story is horribly complex, and
Montefiore struggles mightily to make everything clear as well as
compelling."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Four thousand years of history
absolutely romped through--a masterwork."
--The Evening Standard (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.
[Montefiore] manages to bring people who have been dead for two
millennia alive again and make them breathe, and he has insight
into the mind of psychopathic tyrants that makes you wish he were
working for the U.S. secretary of state."
--Newsweek
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