People of the Book

Brooks, Geraldine

ISBN 10: 1602851255 ISBN 13: 9781602851252

Publisher: Center Point Pub, 2008

Synopsis

Offered a coveted job to analyze and conserve a priceless Sarajevo Haggadah, Australian rare-book expert Hanna Heath discovers a series of tiny artifacts in the volume's ancient binding that reveal its historically significant origins.

About this title

Review:

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

From the Inside Flap:

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famous Sarajevo Haggadah, which was rescued during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images.

When Hanna discovers a series of tiny artifacts in the book's ancient binding, she begins to unlock its mysteries, tracing the book's journey from its salvation back to its creation. In Bosnia during WW II, a Muslim risks his life to protect the book from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in a struggle against the city's rising anti-Semitism. In Inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it. Hanna's investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Center Point Pub
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1602851255
• ISBN 13: 9781602851252
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 478