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From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war
In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.
In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.
Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.
Poor account of history
| Customer Rating:   | It was difficult to decide what was more disappointing: the poor narrative or the incredibly poor knowledge of the history in general, and of the region Ms. Brooks writes about in her "People of the Book". Since a lot has been said about the former in other reviews, I will comment on the latter.
On p. 67 you will find a hilarious sentence ending with "...,yet following the forms of Petrarchan sonnets that had been carried inland from Diocletian's court on the Dalmatian coast." Diocletian retired to his palace on Dalmatian coast in 305 A.D. and died there in 311 A.D. Following his death, the palace was used as an administrative center and the governor's residence until, in 615, it became a refuge for the residents of Salona when their city was sacked by the Avars. In other words, there has been no "court" after Diocletion's death. And Petrarch... well he wasn't born until a thousand years later - in 1304. He wrote his most famous sonnets, those to Laura, between 1327 and 1368.
Another "pearl" from the page 199 (Venice, 1609): the mysterious Doña Reyna de Serena plans to move to the Ottoman Empire..."They say the city of Ragusa is very lovely - not so lovely as Venice, to be sure, but at least it will be an honest life." The citizens of Dubrovnik, or lovely Ragusa would be horrified at this claim. They are namely very proud of the fact that the tiny city-state of Ragusa successfully balanced its sovereignty between the interests of Venice and the Ottoman Empire from the 14th century until 1808, when marshal Marmont abolished the republic and integrated its territory into the Illyrian provinces within the Napoleonic Empire. In other words, Ragusa has never been a part of the Ottoman Empire, although it welcomed many Jews exiled from Spain and Portugal. |
engrossing, beautiful story for all book lovers
| Customer Rating: | The Sarajevo Haggadah of Pesach, one of the most mysterious and interesting Haggadot in the world, is at the center of Geraldine Brooks' novel "People of the Book".
Haggadah, which means "telling" is a rabbinic exegesis the Jewish liberation from Egypt, as told in the Exodus book of the Torah, fulfilling the scriptural commandment to Jews to "tell your son" about this crucial event. It is used to set the order of the Passover Seder. The Sarajevo Haggadah, the oldest of the Sephardic Passover Haggadot, dating back to fourteenth century, is unusual - it is illuminated with beautiful, colorful illustrations, which is against the religious rule, forbidding making images of humans and animals. One of the illustrations shows the Jewsish family and a young, black woman at the same table, a puzzling and surprising picture. This unique property and the book's artistic value raise interest of many people, not only from the world of book conservation, but also political and religious fractions.
When in 1996 thirty-year-old Hanna Heath, an extraordinarily gifted, Australian master book restorer, gets an urgent phone call from her teacher, Amitai, at 2 am, she is just annoyed, but the news is exciting. She is summoned to Sarajevo to assess the authenticity of the Sarajevo Haggadah, which has just resurfaced after being lost for years, found and rescued by the Muslim librarian, Ozren Karaman.
Hanna begins working on the Haggadah with mixed feelings - she is in Bosnia in the middle of a religion-based conflict, closely watched by bank employees, bodyguards and UN officials, who distract her. She is also excited by the prospect of learning something about the history of the mysterious book. She carefully mends the booka and finds little details, which can be helpful: missing clasps, an insect's wing, a white hair, and a red stain. Pursuing these clues, she travels to Vienna and Boston, and learns a little about the journey of the book, making exciting hypotheses, which not always are true...
Because of the novel's construction, the reader learns about the Haggadah more than Hanna would ever know. The chapter alternate between Hanna's studies and her point of view, and the history of the Haggadah, which brings the reader farther and farther back in time, starting with WWII, when the Jews are forced out of Bosnia, moving to the 19th century Vienna, when the book was re-bound, then to Venice of 1609, Spain of 1480, and finally Seville of 1409, getting to the core of the mystery of the illuminations. Each of the historical chapters is a gem of a story in itself, capturing the spirit of time and place, and introducing remarkable characters, each carrying a secret of their own. Based on facts about the miracle of the Sarajevo Haggadah's survival through the ages, Geraldine Brooks has woven a wonderful fictional story - or one of the versions of the truth.
Hanna's story, which frames the history of Haggadah, is also not banal. Hanna discovers herself in a process of working on the Haggadah, finds and comes to terms with the love of her life, revises her relationship with her emotionally distant neurosurgeon mother, and learns of her father's family.
"People of the Book" is a lot better than Zafon's "The Shadow of the wind" and infinitely better than anything by Dan Brown (in my opinion, it is similar to neither of these books, but I know that it has been compared to them). I devoured it in two wonderful evenings and would recommend it to anyone. |
Worthwhile
| Customer Rating: | The interweaving was skilled, although the characters, at times fell flat, and the events predictable.
I also prefer a lighter touch. The best example of tackling a serious subject without a professorial POV is "Yiddishe Mamas: The Truth About the Jewish Mother." It is written by Marnie Winston-Macauley, author of the spectacular calendar series, A Little Joy, A Little Oy (2009).
Although one is fiction, while the other non-fiction, the tonal difference is worth looking at.A Little Joy, A Little Oy: A Banquet of Jewish Humor and Wisdom 2009 Day-to-Day Calendar
Jewish Book MavenYiddishe Mamas: The Truth About the Jewish Mother |
A Very Interesting Story
| Customer Rating: | | Our book club selected this book and I didn't know anything about it when I bought it. I enjoyed it very much. It is full of interesting characters and the way the story is woven together was very well done. I even learned a little history along the way! |
A great historical mystery
| Customer Rating: | | This is the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a real book that has a mysterious 500-year history. When Geraldine Brooks learned about it and was intrigued by the mysteries it held, she did what most writers would do; she made it up. This novel goes back and forth between present and past, showing the bits of evidence that a contemporary book conservator finds in its pages and then shows the reader where those things came from; a butterfly wing, a wine stain, a white cat hair, etc. I thought it dragged a little in the middle but picked up again at the end. |
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