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• People of the Book: A Novel
Geraldine Brooks

Viking Adult, 2008 - 384 pages

average customer review:based on 119 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended






Extraordinary story of rare Hagaddah

Declaration to start off with: I read and enormously loved her previous book "March" and very highly recommend it to anyone interested in the US Civil War and has a passing knowledge of "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott.

As a Jew brought up on more than 50 years of Passover celebrations and having seen many types of Hagaddah's, I was entranced when a friend of mine told me to read this book. I had a vague memory of hearing about the Sarajevo Hagaddah years ago. Geraldine Brooks has written an outstanding dramatic re-telling of the story. Although it is considered a fictional novel this is a bit misleading, insofar as the book was heavily researched and includes depictions of the real known characters involved with the book. All the more I admire how Brooks has interwoven known facts with characters made up in her imagination. While it cannot now be ascertained with too much complete history, the story of this very rare book seems in her hands to come alive with a believable story-line that grabs you from the beginning.

Some have noted that the narrative line appears disjointed, going back and forth in the centuries. Frankly, I found this no trouble at all and enjoyed the freshness of leaving one chapter behind and travelling into a new century where the books history is seen in totally different circumstances. Which of course is a bit of a ruse. Why? The circumstances, while on the surface appear to be different, are in fact always the same. The book, its safety and everyone directly connected to it are always in peril and this anxiety and danger does not abate until the final word of the book. That literary conceit works for me and is partly borne out of what is known.

I found the descriptions of the sufferings of the Jews in the ghettos very hard reading, the realities cutting a little too close for my comfort. Why? My grandmother, still alive at 97, lost all her family to the same hatreds as they rolled into her Estonian town of Tallin, during WW2. She was living in the USA at the time and so was saved. The depictions of brutality towards Jews was not exaggerated in the least bit. That Brooks has included it as a backdrop only underscores the miracle of how this book survived. Some of the characters touched by this book also survived similar harrowing nightmares and catching a glimpse of their parallel lives gives added dimension to the story.

Of course this book is not simply about anti-Semitism and of the Jews alone. It recounts the suffering of Muslim and Christian alike, as each is found to inhabit a world that from time to time descends into a dark and horrid place. Those who fell into slavery or had warfare brought to their happy homes, were equally harmed and destroyed as Jews were. That the book survived, that other people and cultures survived, despite the years of danger and war, draws everyone together.

I found that by the middle of the book it felt like it was starting to sag a bit, as the back and forth seemed to beg the question of where are we finally going with this story? By the last 75 pages I could hardly turn the pages fast enough, ending it in a blaze of non-stop reading that filled my eyes with tears at the conclusion. An excellent read, instructive I'm sure to non-Jews who know little of this book, that Jews around the world have used (allbeit in a plain form) for almost 2000 years. We have Passover coming up in about a weeks time. How timely it was for me to have read this now. I will be sure to mention it to my family as we go through the two nights of Passover celebrations, listening to words "next year in Jerusalem" with a completely refreshed point of view. Highly recommended.


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pleasure

This very well-written book is a terrific read-- I had a difficult time putting it down.









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An "Illuminating" Novel!!

The central character in this wonderful novel is a rare illuminated copy of a fifteenth century Haggadah . This beautiful manuscript survives the war in Bosnia, the perilous period of Nazi Germany, the anti-Semitic years in Vienna,the Inquistion in Venice,and the years of forced Jewish exile in Tarragona, Spain. The book's origin is traced back to Seville where the mystery of its creation is finally revealed. As we travel back to the origin we meet a cast of likely and unlikely heroes who protect the book at all costs. Through the investigative eyes of Hannah Heath,book conservator, the gaping holes in the history of the saved Haggadah are creatively filled in.
This is a well researched novel that speaks to the power of the written word and the triumph of those who sacrifice to keep that word alive.


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A Survivor

The Sarajevo Haggadah, a real Hebrew codex, has miraculously survived five centuries of violence, warfare and mankind's tendency to destroy whatever is seen as a threat to those who for the moment have that kind of power. The fact that this haggadah is an illuminated text, a surprising style for a Jewish text of that period, makes the book exceptionally rare and of great historical value. The book might have been destroyed during the Bosnian conflict that devastated Sarajevo but for the intervention of a Muslim scholar who moved it to the safety of a bank vault, at least the second time in its history that this Jewish book was saved with direct Muslim help.

This is the point at which Geraldine Brooks chooses to begin her latest novel, People of the Book. Dr. Hannah Heath, an Australian expert in the field, has come to Sarajevo to ensure that the book is being properly cared for and to prepare it for exhibition in a Sarajevo museum as a symbol of the city's, and a people's, survival. During her examination of the book, Heath is thrilled to find inside it a few clues that might allow her to partially reconstruct the history of the book and its travels through the centuries. She finds: part of an insect wing, a white hair, a few salt crystals and what appears to be a wine stain.

Through a series of flashbacks drawing ever nearer to the book's origins, Brooks details for readers what the few clues can only hint at to Dr. Heath concerning the book's travels across Europe and the people who possessed and protected it over the centuries. Throughout its history this haggadah has been important to the people who owned it. It survived through a combination of luck and the extraordinarily brave efforts of people who were determined to see it survive. One flashback tells how it barely escaped falling into the hands of despicable Nazi looters, another of what happened to the book in 1894 Vienna, and others recount its creation and subsequent survival of the Spanish Inquisition years. As the book passes from hand-to-hand, backward in time, the reader comes to appreciate the miracle of its survival and the people who made that happen.

As Hanna Heath seeks to learn as much about the Sarajevo Haggadah as she can, she finds herself on a parallel journey in which she learns as much about herself and her personal origins as she does about the book. She finds herself attracted to the man who carried the haggadah to safety in Sarajevo, has to fight self-doubts about her professional competence, and is forced into a confrontation with her mother that will forever change her life.

People of the Book is at once a mystery, a history lesson and a modern day romance. My only quarrel with the book is its "Mission Impossible" ending which, for me, served to completely change the tone of the story being told and rather jarringly reminded me that I was reading fiction. Fortunately, this distraction came late enough in the narrative not to ruin the book for me.



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The one constant is persecution

Following a valuable Hagaddah through its magnificent history is an erudite learning experience of history. Hanna, an audacious Australian, is given a prize commission to study this glorious Haggadah. She starts out in Sarajevo and the reader is moved back and forth through history.
Learning the provenance of the Haggadah introduces us to many heroes in history. Diverse characters used, abused and loved the Hagaddah. All the characters were presented clearly and their roles and motives were probable.

The vicious persecution of Jews was blatantly described. We learn how inferior or frightened regimes used the Jew as a scapegoat but, at the same, used the talent of the Jewish doctor or professional. Many of the Jews had weaknesses which put the Hagaddah at risk. My only criticism was the lack of explanation of the contents of the Book, the story in detail. I think the exodus of the Jews from Egypt should have been clearly defined which would have drawn a stronger correlation with the "exodus" of the Hagaddah.

My favorite character was Hanna's mother, a rigid, cold neurosurgeon, who should have received the worst mother of the year award. Hanna chose science as her vocation but not medicine. Without giving away any more information, Hanna's lineage brings the book full circle.



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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17



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