People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

This story is based on an actual 500 year old Jewish prayer book, now known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, which is on permanent display at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The book was created around 1350 and has survived the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, travel across Europe, the book burnings of World War 2, and the war in Sarajevo.

Geraldine Brooks wrote an article for The New Yorker magazine that was published December 3, 2007 called "The Book of Exodus," telling part of the history of the book during World War 2, when Dervis Korkut saved the manuscript and a young Jewish girl, Mia Papo, from Nazi officials.

Geraldine's historical fiction version of the Sarajevo Haggadah's journeys and protectors was published as People of the Book on January 1, 2008.

Plot Summary: We are introduced to the Haggadah through book restorer Hannah Heath, who is selected by the United Nations to restore the book after it has been found in 1996 at the end of the Bosnian war. (The book was actually restored under UN supervision and Geraldine watched Andrea Pataki work on restoring the ancient manuscript.) Like Geraldine, Hannah is an Australian. She was brought in based on her expertise and because an Aussie would be seen as more neutral than a restorer with strong ties to a European country or Israel.

Through Hannah's eyes, we see war-torn Sarajevo and experience her excitement about the book's survival and the clues in its pages to its history: a butterfly wing; evidence the book was intended to have clasps on its binding; official approval by a Catholic inquisitor in Venice; wine stains; salt residue; and the writing and illustrations themselves.

As Hannah investigates each of these clues to the book's past, we are taken back in time to experience the rescue of the book during World War 2, a prior restoration, it's other travels, and through it all, the people who interacted with the book. These flash-backs become short stories or novellas set in the context of Hannah's continuing story. People of the Book tells a story of the manuscript's survival, but also gives readers windows into the historical interactions among Christians, Jews and Muslims going back to the 1300s.

My Reaction: First of all, I listened to this book on CD and loved the Australian accent of the reader -- really made it easy to "hear" Hannah's voice.

Hannah's stories were the most relatable to me and I love the way they framed the other stories. In addition to her description of the preservation work, we meet Hannah's mother -- who reminded me most of Meredith's mother from Grey's Anatomy, i. e. brilliant surgeon, but crap at personal relationships. I think Geraldine did a great job of giving us enough technical details to follow Hannah's restoration work (or at least why she found such small details to be clues to the book's past) without letting Hannah's personal story or the history of the book be overwhelmed.

Each of the flash-back stories was fascinating on its own, too. While Hannah was ultimately left to speculate about the results of her investigations into the various clues, readers were shown what happened through the eyes of the people involved with the Haggadah during that era. The Jewish struggles shown during each of these time periods was amazing to me. It was difficult, however, to listen to the section dealing with the Spanish Inquisition. (If I'd been reading instead of listening, I'd have probably skimmed over some of the descriptions during that section.)

Throughout the story, the interaction of people who were devout Muslims, Jews and Christians and their impact on the Haggadah was remarkable. The book's history, from its creation in Muslim-ruled Spain (with the inclusion of Christian-style illuminations and Jewish prayers) to its rescue during the 20th Century by a Muslim curator, shows how appropriate the Haggadah is in its eventual home in the museum in a display showing the interplay among these faiths.

Bottom Line: Geraldine did a fantastic job mixing historical facts and restoration details with compelling stories of both modern and historical people who interacted with the Haggadah over the centuries. I'm off to look for her Pulitzer prize-winning March!

Author's Website: Geraldine Brooks

Pictures of the Haggadah: Sarajevo Haggadah

Other Reviews of this Book:

• At Home With Books
• Linus's Blanket
• She is Too Fond of Books