Books: Gifts Between Covers

French holiday shoppers browsing in their bookstores can find an edition of Genesis bound in copper that rattles when shaken to simulate the sound of thunder. They can also buy the writings St. Francis of Assisi tied shut with a piece of twine reminiscent of a friar's cord; a war book, La Route des Flandres by Claude Simon, whose covers are shot through with bullets; and a book about the devil wrapped in old sermons and giving off clouds of powdered sulphur when its pages are turned. Such salesmanship (the work of France's thriving...

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