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. ( )

Very clever. Fascinating and well written. ( )

People of the Book is a fascinating story about a beautiful, rare book which has survived centuries of threatened destruction only to be saved time and again by the people who have been captivated by it. The story’s main character, Hanna, is a rare-book expert and conservationist who is called to Sarajevo to study the Sarajevo Haggadah and learn all she can about this brilliant masterpiece. In her examination of the book she finds several small, seemingly inconsequential clues as to where the book has been and whose lives it has touched. The author cleverly weaves together chapters dedicated to each clue, i.e. “The White Hair,” with chapters of Hanna’s modern-day struggles to unearth the stories associated with the clues all while discovering some of her own tragic family history.

The characters of the book are well-developed and entirely believable. Hanna and her mother have a loveless, often caustic, relationship which becomes even more troubled when Hanna discovers secrets of her family history that her mother has kept from her all of her life. The mother-daughter dynamic is frustrating and sad, but realistic.

The stories surrounding the clues Hanna finds in the Haggadah offer fascinating glimpses into the lives of those living in Italy, Bosnia and surrounding areas during various times of anti-Semitic waves of violence throughout the centuries from the late-1400s to World War II. For many readers, these brief glances into the past will open their eyes to a long, history of violence and hatred toward a people that is hard to understand, but necessary to remember.

People of the Book was a thoroughly enjoyable read from beginning to end. It was very well written and incredibly intriguing. Often in books with more than one story line, one story will lack the ability to keep the reader just as enthralled as the parallel story. Such was not the case with People of the Book. Learning the stories of the people who unknowingly left clues in the Haggadah was just as engrossing as following Hanna as she discovered the mysteries of her own family history and what the Haggadah meant to her. People of the Book is recommended to anyone who enjoys being captivated by an excellent story and learning a bit of history at the same time. ( )

Like other books by Brooks, the story started out promising but it just fizzled. ( )

People of the Book traces the history of an ancient Jewish text that was saved from disaster a number of times through the centuries. It’s fiction, but based on fact. It takes place in Bosnia, Boston, Venice and Spain fromthe 15th c. to the 20th. I find the review of history in that part of the world fascinating. The story line is compelling and holds my interest.

Kept me interested through the whole history of researching this Hagada. Amazing writing. ( )

I really enjoyed the story. It has a good pace. As many reviewers have pointed out it moved around in time between present and past, with the present story staying with one character and the stories from the past moving backwards through time with different characters for each time period. It made me want to learn more about what I was reading, which, for me, is always the sign of a good book. ( )

I couldn't put this book down! ( )

Not the greatest book about books, but overall, not bad. Hanna is a bit whiney for me. All of the bad things that happen in her life seem to be her fault. If she would quit making some of these choices,she would be a lot happier. I did enjoy reading the historical pieces. I found them very interesting and insightful. ( )

Did not enjoy. Too many different stories about people involved in savinga historic book. Also, the reader in the audio version is terrible. Do not recomment. ( )

For all its praise this novel had some tedious writing. When the only two characters in the novel, so far, were in bed together by page 32 I put the book down for a few days. Historical sections are the best. The "Hanna" sections, except the final one, are weak and wading in self pity. Worthy effort. ( )

This is the story of a book, from its creation in the pre-Inquisition Spain by a Moorish female artist to its present life in a Bosnian museum. In the in-between time we follow the travels of the book from Spain, to Italy, to Sarajevo and Vienna and in the mountains of Serbia. We meet all of the people who interact with the book and glimpse their lives--Spain during the conviviencia & the Inquistion, ( )

The second best book I read last year. I've enjoyed Brooks' other novels as well. ( )

Disjointed - sensational ending as if written to be a movie. Skipped a lot of boring parts, but finished the book because it was for one of my books clubs. ( )

Dr. Hanna Heath, an Australian book conservator, arrives in Sarajevo days after the war ends to help preserve a long lost tome of the Jewish faith, the Haggadah. The book, which was believed lost, has turned up at the Sarajevo museum and needs to be restored.

With security tight, she sets about her task only to create more mystery and intrigue than she ever has with her work. Several odd artifacts are found in the book including a butterfly wing, a long silver hair, blood, and indentations from long missing clips; each a mystery in their own right. In putting together a paper on her findings, she begins her research only to be baffled by more questions than answers. She does her best to fill in the blanks and in the process becomes one of the people of the book.

Told in between Hanna's story are the tales of the people who helped to create, protect, and unknowingly, become part of the book and its history. Brooks introduces us to all the people who have touched the book in some way and the places it has traveled through history. She tells us the tales of the inscriptions, the brilliant illustrations, and the mystery surrounding the missing claps. She brings to life the history of not only the people but the book itself and its impact on the individuals it has touched and enlightened.

The ending, which seems more fitting to a mystery caper than this book, is distracting and completely unbelievable after one has become acquainted with the characters involved. While Hanna's story is certainly the glue that binds everything together, it is also the least interesting however; it provides a backdrop for the other stories and a time frame to place the other stories into.

Brooks weaves a wide-ranging tale that encompasses all the individuals that had a hand in creating and saving the book. Her story travels across time and religions and comes to life with her elegant descriptions. The book takes center stage of this intriguing tale and one can feel the soft parchment, smell the dust, and hear the creaking of the binding barely holding the contents together. In the end, it becomes the most fascinating element of the story. ( )

What an interesting book! This is a story of a book, it's owners and it's travels. It's story is traced through minute pieces of evidence found within the book's creases and folds. Really interesting and delightful concept - believable and exciting! ( )

This is a book worth reading. Not only is it clever and well-written, it is educational. I thought that Brooks did a great job of constructing fictional "short-stories" over the true discovery of the Sarajevo Haggadah. The stories are told as the conservator, Hannah Heath discovers speciments in the haggadah and tries to figure out how they could have landed in the historic book. Each story is separately interesting although I found Hannah's story the least interesting of them all. If there is one weak point of the book, it is Hannah's story. I would highly recommend this book. ( )

An Excellent Read but not fully worthy of the Pulitzer in my opinion ( )

This was chosen as our local One Book, One Community read for this year so I read it beforehand to be able to speak intelligently to patrons coming in and asking about it. I mostly enjoyed it - an interesting story with many stories interwoven into it....although I often felt cut short on those historical insights - just as I was getting into that story, it ended.

I'm not sure that the structure of the book was particularly enticing...instead, it was often somewhat confusing - I felt like I should have been taking notes to remember what happened to whom, when and where. Still, the story was a good one and although I felt the main 'modern day' character was a bit unappealing to me in some of her actions, I enjoyed the historical stories a good deal.

However, I didn't have a problem putting the book down for a couple weeks when I went on vacation and waiting to finish the last 100 pages or so...I didn't find it to be a page-turner. I have two colleagues who both tried to read the book and just couldn't get into it at all - one of them is forcing herself to listen to it on CD, but the other totally gave up, even though she liked another book by Brooks. ( )

This was a very engaging book .I found this story fascinating but it is hard to put a synopsis in because this book is the story of one book that spans 500 years.Where its been- who has it and how it got there.
While I listened to this I found myself just as engrossed with the book (in the book) as the narrator.I would recommend to anyone who likes historical fiction . ( )

The history was interesting although I found the story a bit dull. I finished it because it was for my book club, but I don't know if I would have finished it on my own. ( )

In this wonderful novel, Brooks uses a real object--the Sarajevo haggadah or prayer book for seder--and its known and intriguing history to construct a novel of speculation as to the people who might have taken part in its near-miraculous preservation. Starting in contemporary time, with an Australian book conservator, Hanna Heath, the story is revealed in episodes, each going back further in time to an important moment in the book’s history. Each episode is illuminated by some small object--an insect wing, a white hair--that Hanna has discovered in the course of her renovation. Each object has its own tale to tell in the book’s history.

Very well written, People of the Book is a fascinating look at history and a wealth of information about book conservation. The episodic nature of the plot is extremely well done. I have only one quibble with the book, and that is a too-slick scene towards the end that I still can’t figure out why Brooks wrote i except perhaps for an overeager desire to resolve one ambiguity. It seems over the top especially in a book where ambiguity is going to be the rule, not the exception, given the structure and nature of the story.

But other than that, it’s an excellent read. Highly recommended. ( )

This book bogged down about 2/3's of the way through. The story as a fictionalized account of the real Sarajevo Haggadah was interesting but a bit contrived. This author has done better writing and story construction in previous works (The Year of Wonders & March) ( )

This book about Hanna Heath and her study of the rare Sarajevo haggadah by examining artifacts found within its pages was quite an interesting read. Hanna's story is a frame for the interconnecting stories of the people of the book--the souls who created it and who cared for it, saving the book time and again throughout history in a sequence of fascinating twists of fate.

One strength of this book is the way Brooks enters each of the stages of the haggadah's history by choosing for her point of view characters who are essentially peripheral to the story of the book, but whose actions and circumstances cause their lives to become entwined with the book. Brooks approaches each story almost in the same way as Hanna approaches each artifact, as a mystery traced backwards, clue by clue. Each of these characters are fully realized people, and their stories are complex and beautiful. I really appreciate Brooks' skill with narrating these stories in a way that is honest and painful without giving in to the sentimental. She gives the people of the book a dignity that they maintain even in the midst of their various tragedies.

At first I didn't care for Hanna's story, but throughout the book, the frame starts to pull together. The ending seemed a little incongruous, actually, as there were several unexpected twists that seemed out of place a little with the tone of the rest of the book, but possibly it's because I didn't really ever buy the romantic plotline that popped up again from the beginning.

Overall, though, I thought this book was very enjoyable and well-researched, and I will definitely read another book by Geraldine Brooks. (I read The Year of Wonders previously). ( )

A year of Wonders is one of my favourite books of all time. In contrast to that book I found The People Of the Book, clumsy and long winded and poorly constructed. The swapping between the past and the present was not done well, I had much more sympathy and interest in the past story line and characters than the one in the 'present' . I found the book conservator to be almost a caricature of an Australian. A tertiary educated female who regularly trots out language that fits more with a Paul Hogan tourism ad, or in a Dad and Dave silent movie. Dissapointing ++ ( )