The new novel from the author of 'March' and 'Year of Wonders' takes place in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, as a young book conservator arrives in Sarajevo to restore a lost treasure. When Hannah Heath gets a call in the middle of the night in her Sydney home about a precious medieval manuscript which has been recovered from the smouldering ruins of wartorn Sarajevo, she knows she is on the brink of the experience of a lifetime. A renowned book conservator, she must now make her way to Bosnia to start work on restoring The Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book -- to discover its secrets and piece together the story of its miraculous survival. But the trip will also set in motion a series of events that threaten to rock Hannah's orderly life, including her encounter with Ozren Karamen, the young librarian who risked his life to save the book. As meticulously researched as all of Brooks's previous work, 'People of the Book' is a gripping and moving novel about war, art, love and survival.
People of the Book is a fictionalized account of the Sarajevo Haggadah's journey from its creation to the present. The point-of-view flips back and forth between Hanna, the modern-day conservator who is restoring the prayer book, and various people who once possessed it. Each historical short story is centered around things that Hanna finds in the book - for example, an insect wing, and a white hair.
It's a disturbing read, since each short story comes from a time and place in history where the Jewish people are being driven out of the country or killed by the masses. My favorite thing about Jewish history is how it spans so much time and land. The book demonstrates how there are so many different Jewish experiences, depending on the era and the country and the policies of rulers who found either accepting or scorning Jews to their political advantage. I can only trace my ancestors back to recent-Austria, and the book left me wondering, in ways that nonfiction doesn't, where they were before that.
Hanna gets more face-time than any of the other characters, but her story really seems like an afterthought. It's the glue that binds the other stories, but it doesn't feel like it's part of the same book. The thriller-ish bit that's thrown on at the end of Hanna's story is sort of random, and I'm not sure yet why Geraldine Brooks added it (maybe she foresaw the not-so-accurate comparisons to The DaVinci Code). I didn't dislike getting to know Hanna, but it's like my reaction to having chicken in an otherwise creamy soup - chicken is good, but the textures just don't match.
Overall, a very worthy read.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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5 May, 2008:
Finished reading
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5 May, 2008:
Reviewed