People of the Book Review

by First Church

People of the Book

by Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March
 
I thoroughly enjoyed People of the Book, a work of historical fiction that takes its inspiration from the priceless Sarajevo Haggadah, a rare codex discovered in 1894.  A Haggadah is the text from which Jews read aloud when they are gathered around the seder table during the annual Passover celebration of the exodus from Egypt .  The books come in all forms — from family heirlooms to cheaply illustrated paperbacks.  This Haggadah is an illuminated jewel which brings the story’s protagonist and Australian rare book expert, Hannah Heath, to Sarajevo in the midst of the Bosnian war in 1996.
 
Her discoveries within its pages – a butterfly wing, a cat hair, a drop of wine – lead the reader back through the centuries to the book’s creation to a time when Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities lived in the sol y sombra – the sun and shadow – of multi-faith medieval Spain.  Chapters alternate between Hannah’s present-day sleuthing and the circuitous and perilous journey the book took over hundreds of years and the many hands it passed through. 
 
Until the codex came to light in the late 19th century, art historians widely believed that figurative painting had been suppressed among medieval Jews because of the injunction in the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or likeness of any thing” a commandment that was echoed in many Islamic, and even some Christian, societies. So where and how was this illuminated Hebrew manuscript created? Equally puzzling – one of the Sarajevo Haggadah’s illustrations depicts a Spanish Seder which includes a woman who holds a piece of matzah, the unleavened Passover bread. Her African features are in stark contrast to the other family members around the table even though she too wears the costume of a wealthy Spanish Jews of the era.  Who is this mysterious woman?  You’ll have to read the book to find out!
 
I listened to some chapters of People of the Book on audiobook and really relished it because I could never lose sight of the fact that Hannah is Australian.  This factor, along with several others revealed through the course of the book, positions her as an outsider who helps us discover the book’s inner life even as we discover her own secrets.  If you read this enthralling tale you will learn as much about the art and science of rare book conservation as you will about the intriguing and beautiful Sarajevo Haggadah. 

 

Janet Harris