By Geraldine Brooks
Publisher: Viking Adult
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 067001821X
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780670018215
Product Description:
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.
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.
Amazon.com Review:
Amazon Best of the Month, January 2008: One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure. A complex love story, thrilling mystery, vivid history lesson, and celebration of the enduring power of ideas, People of the Book will surely be hailed as one of the best of 2008. --Mari Malcolm
Summary: a gentile thriller
Rating: 2
I was glad to learn something of the Sarajevo Hagaddah, but would have preferred to have had a straightforward account of whatever is known about it rather than a fictional account based on mere shreds of evidence that in the end disappointed me. It turned out to be not much more , I thought, than a somewhat genteel thriller whose style was unremarkable, whose structure seemed to reflect the current fad for non-linearity, and whose technique was rather predictable -- what with chapters ending with a "hook"(e.g. "it was blood" at the end of the wine stain chapter)and situations or characters disclosed piecemeal - e.g. someone named Hertzl turns out to be Theodore, Mittl turns out to be the bookbinder etc. I have to give her credit for inventiveness and imagination. But for me the novelistic detail simply reinforced the fact that it was almost entirely a fabrication of no great weight as a work of literature. -Joel Slocum
Summary: Best This Year.
Rating: 5
I read quite a few books, and realized that I review very few, usually the bad ones! This time I will write a short review about one that I loved. Others have tackled the plot and done a great job. What I loved about this book was its structure and its wonderful history brought to life. The fact that I found closure with the artifacts, (sometimes in the historical parts and sometimes in current times) was what I loved about this book. The little mysteries contained within were precious. I felt it was interesting that we readers know more than the main character about what happened and how the artifacts came to be in the book. I'm not an especially good writer, so it is difficult to describe how emotionally entangled I became with this book. I just *loved* it. If you read "March" and disliked it, don't give up on Brooks. I rolled my eyes when my bookclub decided on this book. I really did not care for "March" at all.
Summary: Fascinating Story
Rating: 5
This is a heart-wrenching, yet fascinating tale, at the same time lyrical and unique, crossing genres from historical fiction to modern mystery. The research Brooks compiled in writing this book must have been exhausting and for the first time I began to understand the depth of the work and knowledge required of those who restore and appraise old books and manuscripts. This story has all the elements of a great forensic mystery, yet incorporates religious history and mysticism with a very human face. Lovely story, well written and great reading.
Summary: A Good Combo of History and Fiction
Rating: 4
I've heard a lot of good things about this book, and I think I have to agree with many of them. It's a captivating story, one part historical and three parts fiction. The story follows a medieval book specialist named Hanna as she travels to Sarajevo to study and restore the Sarajevo Haggadah, an actual book that is one of the very rare cases of Jewish manuscripts being illuminated in the medieval period. Because the true history of the Haggadah-- it's maker, illustrator, who commissioned the book, etc-- is unknown, Brooks takes a lot of fictional liberty in her novel, creating interesting histories for the book to explain how it got from Spain (where it was supposedly created) to Sarajevo over a period of five hundred years. Parts of the book annoyed me, especially Brooks' elaborate "histories". I would have preferred to see more plot revolving around Hanah and her present-day studies of the book. The novel is actually more about Hanah's life while she happens to be working on the Haggadah, not so much about the Haggadah itself, apart from these backstory moments. Anyway, a good book all-in-all. Interesting, and it makes me want to research the Haggadah more for myself. You can google "Sarajevo Haggadah" and see some of the beautiful illustrations for yourself, if you're interested.
Summary: She can't handle simple math, but weaves a gripping story...
Rating: 4
The main character Hanna, is supposed to be 30 years old in 1996. At this terribly young age (for academia), she has completed a PhD at Harvard, published "numerous" papers, and established an international reputation as a book conservator and expert in medieval judaism. I don't know anything about the world of book conservation, but it seems highly unlikely that a person, no matter how talented, could achieve all of this by the tender age of 30. Then it gets worse..."when in Vienna in the early 80's on a traveling scholarship". Let's see: 30 years old in 1996, so born in 1966 or 1965. In 1980, she would be 14. In 1982, she would be 16, the year the character dropped out of high school and bummed around her native Australia. Kinda doubt they give traveling scholarships to high school drop outs. She finds out who her father was and "remembers seeing him on the news, being arrested at some sit-in".... unless it was a re-run, how could she see her father on the news <<<>>> when he died while she was still a fetus??? I understand why she felt the character had to be young, so that the main story line of her love affair would be more plausible. But, why couldn't the character have been 50 (a more likely age for one so accomplished) and still have a love affair with a hot librarian?? Because Hollywood doesn't cast 50 year olds in love stories unless they are comedies, perhaps??
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