People of the Book

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Fiction

2008 Penguin Books

Finished on February 15, 2022

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.

In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.

Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.

People of the Book has languished on my shelf for over a decade, and I was finally inspired to give it a read after recently finishing Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. I enjoy historical fiction and O'Farrell's novel brought to mind another novel about the Plague (Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks), which in turn motivated me to finally pick up Brooks' novel about the famed Sarajevo Haggadah. I was quickly drawn into the story and was fascinated by the history of the illuminated text, but about two-thirds into the novel it lost its momentum. I have mixed feelings about dual narratives and this one was especially frustrating. I struggled with the reverse chronology of the historical thread, annoyed that the characters I was just getting to know were replaced with a new set of individuals living not only in a different country, but also in a different century. People of the Book is educational and obviously well-researched, but it failed to hold my interest and I struggled to finish the final chapters. Perhaps my expectations were set too high.