Thursday, December 03, 2009

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

When the Sarajevo Haggadah is found in 1995, Hannah Heath, a rare book conservator, is invited by the UN to preserve it.  The book had disappeared in 1992.  The story alternates between Hannah Heath in the present and successively earlier accounts of the book and how it came to be.  I thoroughly enjoyed the historical chapters, which were fictionalized accounts because little is actually known.  the present day part of the story of Hannah Heath was a little too melodramatic for my taste, but the book is still very much worth reading.

1 comment:

Carol said...

I enjoyed the historical parts too and would have liked to read more about those people but I found Hannah and her mother a bit unpleasant and at the end I was horrified that she put something into the binding of the ancient book. Having worked for a conservator I don't think that was an okay thing to do. I am a fan of Geraldine Brooks, loved March especially, and will continue to read her as she progresses through her career.