Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City (2012)

2012 winner: Chroniques de Jérusalem Guy Delisle spent a year in Jerusalem as the stay-at-home parent while his partner worked for an aid organization, and he records it the way he recorded Pyongyang and Burma: school runs, checkpoints, baffled curiosity and a lot of dry humor. Its value is the street-level view of a divided city from someone who admits what he does not understand. The English edition, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, is a long but easy read.