People of the Book is a semi-imagined history of a 500-year-old illuminated manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah (Jewish prayer book). The book really exists and some of the events depicted in the novel actually occurred, though Brooks stresses that none of the principal characters were drawn directly from life.

The narrative swaps between the mid-nineties to early-noughties "present" and a reverse chronology of the haggadah's creation and subsequent changing of hands. This journey takes us to Yugoslavia at the outbreak of the second world war, fin-de-siecle Vienna and 15th century Seville among other places.

Brooks has created a mixed bag of characters. The present-day book conservator, Hanna Heath, is a consummate craftswoman charged with readying the Haggadah for exhibition as the dust is still settling over Sarajevo after the 1990's war. Hanna is Australian, a fact that Brooks beats you over the head with at every opportunity. I found Hanna's character difficult to believe in. On the one hand, she's a highly-educated, well-travelled, skilled technician and on the other she uses archaic Strine in a way I've never heard anyone do in the real world.

Happily, the historical characters are much more engaging. Lola, a Jewish teenager in Sarajevo who narrowly escapes the clutches of the invading Nazis to life on the run in the mountains with a rag-tag band of baby guerillas. Florien Mittl, an anti-Semitic Viennese book-binder dying of tertiary syphilis. Domenico Vistorini, a Catholic priest and Inquisition censor, and charismatic Judah Aryeh, rabbi and denizen of the original "geto" in early 17th century Venice. Their lives, and the politics and social pressures of their times, each propel the haggadah from one unlikely custodian to the next.

Geraldine Brooks is an excellent historical novelist. She takes the gaps between what and who are known and documented, and fills them in with such precision that you can smell the boiling gall, hear the swish of oars in the canal, feel the walls of tiny ghetto dwellings closing in. She gives such a strong sense of place and time that it's jarring to be wrenched back to 1996 to some vitriolic argument between Hanna and her truly awful mother. The book really shines when we're in Venice or Seville hundreds of years ago. It falls down in post-war Sarajevo, Boston, London and Sydney.

A guest on ABC TV's First Tuesday Bookclub suggested to viewers who were new to Brooks' work that they start with Year of Wonders or March, but existing fans would enjoy this novel. As a fan, I did enjoy the book, but can see it's weaknesses. These I choose to forgive. ( )

This was good but I wanted it to be better.

I loved the concept but didn't really love any of the people and I think the writer wanted me too.

I'm glad I didn't look for photos of the real Sarajevo Haggadah because the images in my mind were more spectacular than the real thing - credit there to both the cover art and to Geraldine Brooks because the chapter on how Zahra learned to paint really made me conjure up something different in my mind.

Overall I feel good about the author and would read more of her work. ( )

Wonderful story! This is a book lover's book.

Generally I dislike books where chapters bounce around from one time period to another, but this book proved the exception.

Briefly, "People of the Book" begins with an Aussie conservator arriving in 1996 Sarajevo to work on an ancient Haggadah. In every other chapter we read about her relationships and her travels across Europe, to the US and back to Australia while researching this beautiful, ancient book.

The alternating chapters reach back in time moving through the chain of people through the centuries who kept the book safe from wars and book burnings until we finally get to discover the artist who created it. Each of the stories is wonderfully told.

I agree with the book jacket that it’s a “..compulsively readable adventure story…” ( )

Great. Jumps forward & back in time but comes together nicely. ( )

The story of the Sarajevo Haggadah ("the book") although mostly fictionalized is fascinating and intricately created and told. I was fascinated with the details of how the book was made, the clues that revealed its history, and the process of rare book conservation and restoration. I was less and less interested in the sexual escapades of the people of the book, and frankly put off by them eventually. Nevertheless, a good read. ( )