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Loading... People of the book : a novel (edition 2008)by Geraldine Brooks
Work InformationPeople of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 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…” 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. Wow, very rarely do I read something so deep and well-written so quickly. Twenty pages into this story, I knew it would be something very special and it's held my attention almost every spare moment for these last couple days. I learned so much about historical times I was unfamiliar with: the Spanish Inquisition and war time in Bosnia, especially. I feel like too much prattling on my part would really just be a detriment to the beauty of the story but suffice it to say, it's the best thing I've read in a long time. Content warning: a few profanities are scattered throughout. Not excessive, but harsh when they appear. Several racy and/or abusive scenes but not too detailed.
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. Belongs to Publisher SeriesHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
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 binding, she unwittingly exposes an international cover up. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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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. ( )