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Nine Quarters of Jerusalem by Matthew Teller review – a new map of a contested city
The journalist and documentary-maker draws on interviews and millennia of history to challenge traditional models of Jerusalem’s Old City
In modern times – at least since the mid-19th century – the Old City of Jerusalem has been conventionally described by foreigners as consisting of four distinct quarters: Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian. Matthew Teller, in his highly perceptive and readable book, tells a very different story.
Teller, a freelance journalist and documentary-maker, combines millennia of Jerusalem’s history with insightful interviews with its residents, weaponising that unusual approach to present a subtle portrait of the current reality at the heart of the world’s most intractable and divisive conflict.
Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City by Matthew Teller is published by Profile Books (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
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