Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Loading...

People of the Book

by Geraldine Brooks

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
3,118194849 (3.95)365

Member recommendations

  1. mrstreme recommends The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, "Similar history of how museum workers scrambled to save pieces of art during wartime"
  2. VivianeoftheLake recommends The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman
  3. Ciruelo recommends A Thread of Grace: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell
  4. merry10 recommends Fugitive Blue by Claire Thomas, "An imagined history of a 15th Century panel."
  5. whymaggiemay recommends Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland, "Both well written, and both follow an art object from end to beginning, through the hands of those who once owned it."
  6. oregonobsessionz recommends The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus by Owen Gingerich, "This one may be a stretch, but anyone who read People of the Book for its historic and "books on books" aspects would probably enjoy The Book (see more) Nobody Read, a nonfiction account of an astronomer who seeks to account for all of the first and second editions of Copernicus' de Revolutionibus."
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

English (193)  Dutch (1)  All languages (194)
Showing 1-5 of 193 (next | show all)
Brooks won the Pulitzer in 2006 for her book March, so I felt obligated to try People of the Book when I saw it on display at the mega-bookstore that shall remain unnamed. I feel guilty that I didn’t spend my money at the local independent bookstore. I had a gift card. What could I do.

The book is about the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish religious text that tells the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. It’s believed that this Haggadah originated some time in the 14th century in Spain and made it’s way to Sarajevo, surviving Jewish expulsion, the Spanish Inquisition, World War II, and the Bosnian War. The Haggadah contains some beautiful illustrations similar to Christian prayer books, and one of them includes a Moorish woman. This raises several historical questions about why this Jewish text has Christian influenced artwork and a Moorish woman. Brooks’ fictional protagonist is a conservationist of ancient texts. She finds several clues as to the Haggadah’s origins and history while restoring it for the museum in Sarajevo. The chapters take the reader back in time to tell the fictional story behind each clue, which is pretty interesting, but several times Brooks uses corny plot twists along the lines of something from a Dan Brown novel. Most are in the present and involve the protagonist and her own little storyline. Overall, the book is about how multiculturalism is great and created this wonderful work of art, but I have to say I felt the Christians in this book took a beating. I know, the Inquisition. I can’t argue with that. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but there are several times Brooks could have gone in a different direction with certain characters. Again, the Dan Brown nonsense really turns me off. It wasn’t a lot, but that’s my pet peeve, especially coming from a writer who won the Pulitzer.

People of the Book is good, and it kept my interest, but it’s not as good as I thought it would be. I guess that’s what I get for not buying March, but I figured her follow up to the Pulitzer could only be better…right? ( )
  wilsonknut | Nov 27, 2009 |
The book reads like a series of historical short stories that are interspersed among chapters of a short novel about a present-day book conservator. Dr. Hanna Heath is restoring a 500-year old Jewish codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah; each of her discoveries about the book is followed by a chapter containing a glimpse of the people and circumstances involved in its history.It took me a while to warm up to this. We don't see much of Hanna's depth until the latter half of the book, and the first few historical chapters describe attempts to save the book from destruction by the Nazis or the Inquisitors. While the characters are vividly drawn, there's not much suspense in these chapters -- we already know the haggadah will be saved, since we've seen Hanna working with it. However, when Brooks takes us to the haggadah's origins, to the painter and calligrapher that made it in the first place, that's when the real mysteries of the book begin to reveal themselves in all of their beauty, tragedy, and hope. ( )
1 vote catalogthis | Nov 24, 2009 |
Good weaving of story lines ~ Brooks tells a good story but lacks sophistication in descriptive techniques; I would like a lot more detail about settings, the visual sense of place is missing. ( )
  nggray | Nov 23, 2009 |
I came to this book with great expectations, having read and loved Brooks' first novel, 'Year of Wonders' several times over the years. This one didn't quite live up to her debut for me, but I certainly wasn't disappointed. Brooks has put together a sweeping work giving the reader glimpses into the journey of the famous Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illustrated ancient Jewish prayer book.

She alternates chapters from the point of view of Hanna, a feisty young book conservator working on the haggadah, with episodes from the book's history, flowing through time and skipping across countries to follow it from its creation to its revered status today. It is an epic story, filled with hardship and death, war and persecution, romance and courage. Perhaps one of the reasons I preferred 'Year of Wonders' was its message of pulling together in times of natural disaster in order to survive. This novel was about the survival of the book when human bonds were being torn apart, and Brooks doesn't shy away from the cruelty of war and the idea of history repeating itself in the face of mankind's own futile desire for superiority.

I don't think I would read it again in a hurry - although the book survived, it was heartbreaking the way lives were being senselessly destroyed all around it. Suicide, murder, book burning, torture, it's all here. Most of this book is fictional, but the research on the religious turmoil and the bravery of the people known to have protected the haggadah is as meticulous as we would expect from Brooks. It's well worth a read: it made me think, it made me cry, it left me pondering huge themes and questions, and it reminded me of how lucky I am compared to these individuals who had to show immense courage just to hold on to their beliefs and stay alive. ( )
2 vote elliepotten | Nov 17, 2009 |
It was an interesting read, but not one I would rave about. I liked the way different chapters were from different time periods and people. It was quite readable. ( )
  karynwhite | Oct 31, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 193 (next | show all)
While peering through a microscope at a rime of salt crystals on the manuscript of the Haggadah, Hanna reflects that “the gold beaters, the stone grinders, the scribes, the binders” are “the people I feel most comfortable with. Sometimes in the quiet these people speak to me.” Though the reader’s sense of Hanna’s relationship with the Haggadah rarely deepens to such a level, Geraldine Brooks’s certainly has.
 
Brooks' novel meticulously, lovingly amalgamates mystery and history with the personal story of its heroine, rare-book expert and conservator Hanna Heath.
 
If Brooks becomes the new patron saint of booksellers, she deserves it. The stories of the Sarajevo Haggadah, both factual and fictional, are stirring testaments to the people of many faiths who risked all to save this priceless work.
added by DieFledermaus | editUSA Today, Susan Kelly (Jan 9, 2008)
 
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
There, where one burns books,

one in the end burns men.
(Heinrich Heine)
Dedication
For the librarians
First words
I might as well say, right from the jump: it wasn't my usual kind of job.
Quotations
The words stuck to his tongue like...the ashes that had fallen in a warm rain after the last book burning.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Geraldine Brooks (writer)

People of the Book (novel)

Book description
In 1996, Hanna Heath, a young Australian book conservator is called to analyze the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a priceless six-hundred-year-old Jewish prayer book that has been salvaged from a destroyed Bosnian library. When Hanna discovers a series of artifacts in the centuries' old, she unwittingly exposes an international cover up.

Amazon.com (ISBN 067001821X, Hardcover)

Amazon Best of the Month, January 2008: One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure. A complex love story, thrilling mystery, vivid history lesson, and celebration of the enduring power of ideas, People of the Book will surely be hailed as one of the best of 2008. --Mari Malcolm

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:11 -0400)

(see all 2 descriptions)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Quick Links

Ebooks Audio Swap
2 pay1 pay4/255+

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 45,992,542 books!