Paperback. - Harper Perennial, 2008. - 371 pages

www.amazon.com (15.4.2017):

A 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.

Releasing this to the book buffet

Couldn't resist the temptation at the convention in Oslo, so this book came home with me :-)

I really enjoyed this story, both with Hanna's "real" contemporary storyline and the imagined travels of the book (in the true spirit of bookcrossing :-D). Sad how much the different "people of the book" had to go through, but at the same time encouraging how they worked together knowingly and unknowingly throughout centuries to protect the book and precious work of art that could easily have been lost!

I liked the hints at how Australians would be suited for working with European heritage, on the one hand because they have (sometimes many different) European roots but on the other hand because they are neutral enough not to upset anyone in delicate political issues... I wonder if the author has had to explain these issues a lot?

Coming with me for today's meet-up

Brought with us from Gothenburg, Sweden to the Bookcrossing convention.

Selected from the table at the wonderful BC convention in Mainz to be added to my enormous Mount TBR.
I can't remember if this was on my BC wishlist or not; if not, it should have been because I've wanted to read this for years. Thank you for bringing it to the convention.

If you don’t enjoy books that skip back and forth through different voices and timeframes, you might find People of the Book challenging, but I’d still urge you to read it if you have any interest in books or historical novels or sleuthing. It’s even got an element of a thriller. In fact, the whole story, reconstructed as the chronological history of the Haggadah, with a framing story of Hanna and her mother and Hanna and Ozren would make a fantastic film.

Very often, when you have been reading enthusiastic reviews by book friends for many years, the book itself is a disappointment. Not in this case! This book is like reading several compact historical novels back to back, each one adding on a layer of detail. In People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks works her way back through the history of an amazing book, the Sarajevo Haggadah, a religious anomaly: it is a Jewish book used in private family ceremony at a time when Jews were unlikely to have illustrated anything. At least twice in its history, it has been heroically saved for posterity by Muslim librarians and the illustrations have the hallmarks of Christian books of hours and medieval illumination, but in the style of Iranian illustrators. It obviously has an extraordinary tale to tell.

Geraldine Brooks embroiders on the real facts of the Sarajevo Haggadah and its known protectors and speculates about the lives of the people who created, loved and used it throughout its long life and travels. One of the themes that emerges strongly is that, though we tend to highlight the turbulent periods of history, different religious communities have lived together harmoniously, most of the time. For hundreds of years, it was Jews and Arabs who were the scholars and scientists of Europe and the Middle East, with books and manuscripts at the centre of their learning. Until the Reformation, Christians were not encouraged to learn to read and write and scripture was mediated through the priesthood because the Bible was only available in Latin. She also makes interesting points about the way in which Jewish views were ahead of their time in many situations in the past.

Another thing I loved in her story was how she often used women or girls as her protagonists. Sometimes a modest woman or child could slip under the radar or conceal a small book under her shawl without arousing suspicion. The younger generation of scientists, including the linking story of the modern-day book conservationist, Hanna, are also women who are equal to men. And though her mother is almost entirely devoid of redeeming points as a cold, ruthless career-minded workaholic, she is claiming territory for women just as much as Hanna with her no strings attached sexual freedom.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. This edition also has a section at the end with an interview with the author and an ‘if you liked this, you might like...’ list. If only I could get more recommendations from whoever compiled that list because I’ve read and loved all but one: The History of Love, The Shadow of the Wind and The Thirteenth Tale. I will have to search out The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (referred time in the recommendations list as The Dumas Club. That’s one I’ve never heard of and the rest really are among my favourite books. I’m less impressed with the cover of the copy I read because the butterfly in the photo is purple and the one described is white, with almost translucent lower wings. The tagline “Its secrets will change her life for ever” is also not entirely accurate. It’s other people’s actions that do that. But the book itself was wonderful.

View all my reviews

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of the previous year.

Nice, I caught a well-travelled book!
I think I've read this book already (in dutch, probably), but if so, I liked it and will re-read it with - who knows - some nice little details that the dutch version did not include.

I have read this book before and what is more, I have it in my collection (which means I really liked it). However, it is also in english, so no need to keep this book on TBR, I will change its status to AVL.

This book has already travelled a lot, but has not seen Paris yet. It will come with me to the MBC.

Picked it up at MBC Paris 2023. Back to the Netherlands it goes!

I enjoyed this book very much, once it got into the various stories in the past, which were fascinating. And I realise that you need the modern-day part of the story to bring it all together, but I just wasn't that enamoured with Hannah. To me that made going back to the modern-day part slightly disappointing, and it felt like it was just so we could see what clue needed explaining next. But I loved reading about the various characters each playing a part in the haggadah's journey. Thanks for sharing!

Taking it to the Convention in Tampere!