People of the Book

I just "read" People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (by "read" I mean I listened to it on audiobook) and was pleasantly surprised. I've heard good things about March, but I had never tried any books by Geraldine Brooks before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The book tells the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illustrated Jewish manuscript from the 15th century that needs authentication from Dr. Hanna Heath, an Australian rare books expert. Hanna flies to war-torn Sarajevo in 1996, and is entranced by the beauty of the Haggadah. According to Jewish tradition, images of the Scriptures are not allowed, but this book proves the exception to the rule. Hanna finds several small clues hidden between the pages of the book: such as a wine stain, a salt stain, and a white hair, that set Hanna on a quest to find out who created this unusual Haggadah, and why.

I liked that People of the Book revealed the secrets of the Haggadah in reverse order, starting with the story of a young Jewish girl running from the Nazis in WWII, and the Muslim family that protected her and the Haggadah. The story progressed from WWII back to turn-of-the-century Vienna, then back to sixteenth century Venice, then back to Spain during the Inquisition, and finally back to the source of the book. The book is told in alternating chapters, flashing back and forth between the story of Hanna in the present day, and the other people who helped protect the book over its long and varied history.

The audiobook version I listened to was fun; the narrator was Australian which gave Hanna's character a vivid, realistic flavor. My one irritation was that the older Jewish characters all ended up sounding the same in the narrator's voice--even though some of them were male and some were female.

This book could have easily fallen into the same silly historical-quest type mold as Dan Brown or Steve Berry or all the other copycats out there, but it didn't at all. There was no big conspiracy, just a story of an intriguing young woman, the complications in her personal life, her love for beautiful books, and this one particularly beautiful book that had touched so many lives over so many centuries. The plot was a little bit predictable, the huge surprise that Hanna is blindsided by was pretty obvious about six chapters earlier; but that's not a huge complaint, I didn't mind seeing exactly how the characters were going to get to that point of the story.

If you're looking for an enjoyable historical fiction book, I'd highly recommend People of the Book. And I'm going to read March soon I think, so I'll keep you posted on whether or not Geraldine Brooks stands up to the second-book test.