I read this book as part of a bookray a couple of years ago and thought it was excellent. Picked up this copy at a thrift store for release. See this JE for my prior review.

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People of the Book
Author: Geraldine Brooks
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-si?cle 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.

Sending to NancyNova - a wishlist tag. Enjoy!

A Wishlist tag. Thank you! This was previously read by my current book club & I'm trying to catch up on the ones I missed reading. Adding to the TBR sooner stash.

rabck from PerryFran; Fabulous book. The center of the book is the Sarajevo Haggadah, a book that has existed for 500 years, notable for it's illuminations (painted icon-like pictures) which are rare in a Jewish book. As the Autralian curator takes apart and rebinds the book, she dicovers things in it, like a cat hair and wine stains, and each discovery takes her in a direction to identify the why, and us in a direction backwards for a time in the life of the book, to when and how the artifact occurred.
This will travel forward as a rabck

Thank you for this wishlist book, NancyNova! I'm looking forward to reading it!

Geraldine Brooks is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Every book she writes is so different, yet so rich and detailed in its characters and settings, that I feel as if I'm there, living through history. This was no exception. Every chapter was a revelation, in more ways than one.

Passed along to Sister No. 3 to read and return.

Back from Sister No. 3 who reported that she LOVED it and couldn't put it down.

Sending to Washington state as a RABCK and housewarming gift!

Received in the mail today. Thank you so much!
It is funny that there is a sticker with a Bothell, WA address and I'm nearby that town, after it has traveled around the US.