Books About Great Cities

No one knows a city like the people who live there - so who better to relate the history of Paris than its inhabitants through the ages? Taking us from 1750 to the new millennium, Graham Robb's Parisians is at once a book to...

Step into the ancient heart of Japan with Another Kyoto, an intimate exploration of the hidden wonders of Kyoto, the country's former imperial capital. Through vivid conversations between authors Alex Kerr and Kathy Arlyn Sokol, readers are granted an insider's view into the city's...

Hailed as a 'Book of the Year' by both The Sunday Times and TLS, this captivating work has garnered praise from literary luminaries. Natalie Haynes, author of Stone Blind, deems it 'fascinating and important', while the Daily Telegraph lauds it as 'monumental and vividly...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve' GUARDIAN'Richly entertaining and impeccably researched' Peter FrankopanIstanbul has always been a place where stories and histories collide and crackle, where the idea is as potent as the historical fact. From...

A dazzling biography of the Eternal City - 'A tour of the great city with a great guide: who could do this better?' EVENING STANDARD. For almost a thousand years, Rome held sway as the spiritual and artistic centre of the world. Hughes vividly...

The Sunday Times-bestselling author of Dresden returns with a monumental biography of the city that defined the twentieth century - BerlinThroughout the twentieth century, Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. This history is often viewed as separate acts: the suffering of...

FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR'Sparkles with brilliant observations on art and architecture, friendship and loss' Guardian'Everybody should get to spend a month with Mr. Matar, looking at paintings' Zadie Smith, Wall Street Journal, Books of the Year_______________________________________________Matar was nineteen years old...

Step into the vibrant world of 16th and early 17th century Languedoc, where the voices of ordinary women echo through the centuries. In "The Voices of Nîmes," Suzannah Lipscomb deftly weaves a tapestry of their lives, unveiling their innermost thoughts on relationships, faith, and...

An exploration of a crucial turning point in Italian art, the early 1300s in the city of Siena �"This is a book to be savored and treasured, much like the objects it celebrates."-Ann Landi, Wall Street Journal � In the early 1300s, the city...

John Julius Norwich takes you on a grand tour of forty monumental cities that laid the foundations for the ancient world and its civilizations - cities that have profoundly influenced our modern urban existence. These ancient metropolises were the birthplaces of architectural and political...

In the crumbling ruins of the Roman Empire, a city arose as a beacon of power and culture – Ravenna. In this groundbreaking historical account, Judith Herrin masterfully unravels the story of how this unlikely crucible forged a new era for Europe. With a...

Nestled at the crossroads of East and West, Budapest has long been a city of contrasts, a vibrant melting pot where cultures collide and histories intertwine. In "Budapest: Portrait of a City Between East and West", Victor Sebestyen takes readers on a captivating journey...

Delve into the captivating story of Britain's greatest civic renaissance during the Victorian era with Tristram Hunt's "Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City." This meticulously researched historical account unveils the controversies, visions, and ambitions that shaped the rise of great...

Naples is always a shock, flaunting beauty and squalor like nowhere else. It is the only city in Europe whose ancient past still lives in its irrepressible people. In 1503, Naples was the Mediterranean capital of Spain's world empire and the base for the...

Rainer Maria Rilke offers a compelling portrait of Parisian life, art, and culture at the beginning of the 20th centuryIn 1902, the young German poet Rainer Maria Rilke travelled to Paris to write a monograph on the sculptor Auguste Rodin. He returned many times...