The Barnes & Noble press release about The People of the Book is a good introduction and offers some good advice for getting the most out of this powerful book that we will discuss on June 21st:
Before you give yourself up to the sweep and scope of People of the Book, the captivating novel from Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks, grab some paper and a pen. You’ll be glad you did. From the opening chapter to the closing page, Brooks crams so many people, places, and events into her ambitious and intricate account of a Jewish prayer book that she leaves you longing for a scorecard.
Brooks starts out easy. It’s 1996 and Hannah Heath, an expert in rare books, has been lured from her laid-back life in Australia to Sarajevo, “where they just stopped shooting at each other five minutes ago.” Hannah’s job is to conserve and analyze the world-famous Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the earliest illuminated Jewish texts. The ancient manuscript, filled with images so rich and beautiful that it is now a priceless artifact, has appeared, vanished, and reappeared numerous times in its 500-year history. Its most recent rediscovery in war-torn Sarajevo, where a Muslim librarian has saved this Jewish holy book, is nothing short of a miracle.
Though Brooks’s book is a work of fiction, the Sarajevo Hagaddah itself is quite real. The author first learned of it during her stint covering the Bosnian war for The Wall Street Journal. When the manuscript suddenly resurfaced, speculation about where it had been, and how and by whom it has been saved over the course of its lifetime, fueled her imagination. With scant information to get in her way, Brooks was free to blend existing fact with her own lively fancy.
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