People of the Book: A Novel
The bestselling novel that follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war, from the author of The Secret Chord and of March, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called “a tour de force” by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultranationalist fanatics.
Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called “a tour de force” by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultranationalist fanatics.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
I found this book to be extremely thought provoking and one that stays with you. I wasn't sure at first if I liked how the book unfolded by going backwards chronologically, but I grew to really appreciate it. I learned a lot about the suffering of the Jewish people over the centuries that I didn't know. I would highly recommend this book.
People of the Book
By Geraldine Brooks.
I am surprised that it took me till 2025 to read this and It was first published in 2008.
Firstly, there is a Sarajevo Haggadah and it did have real-life rescuers. Dervis Korkut, who hid it from the Nazis. Lola, the young Jewish guerrilla fighter in the novel, is based on a real person named Mira Papo, who was sheltered by Dervis Korkut and his wife Servet
My reasons for putting this forward for Book Bangers are multi layered. I suspected none of you may have read the book and being written 2008 made it easily accessible. I also think it is good to stretch our brain cells and I like to learn something new.
Sarajevo Haggadah was something new to me and I enjoyed the book and felt it was an interesting subject. Also, I like GB as a writer, i suppose I see her as a real writer, and felt she pulled this book off without making it as boring as an old shoe.
We had interesting characters and a complex love story as well as a difficult relationship between a mother and daughter, both these subtexts gave the reader a reprieve from the Main Story.
At times it seemed overwhelming to keep up with the different timelines and characters and I did take a rest when that happened. Although, once I got a handle on the style that improved. After reading this book I read it has been compared to The De Vinci Code, I have read both and never would have compared this to the wild adventure and Dramas of TDVC.
One of the reasons I gave the book 5 stars was due to the way the book juggled the complexity of the topic while giving and showing the value of history and compassion. Surprisingly I did not feel it was overly religious, so I hope you didn’t either. For me this book details how many unknown people and situations can alter an outcome or situation if they are passionate enough.
It was Not for the page turning excitement of The DiV code, that I gave POTB 5 stars.
I really enjoyed Hanna and her mother, although I found the relationship almost too much for the little time that was spent on the mother and the complicated reasons that they had that relationship. Although it certainly gave the reader a rest from The Book.
There were so many wonderful characters and situations woven into this interesting story.
I hope this explains why I put it forward. I do hope you enjoy it.
Great story that weaves itself back and forth through history tracing the history and the mystery of a religious text. This book was a real page turner for me. I couldn't put it down.
Hanna Heath is an expert in rare books. While she enjoys the solitary and clinical nature of her work, she becomes unexpectedly caught up with the mysterious past of the Sarajevo Hagaddah, a jewel among rare books and notable for its astonishingly fine illustrations, which were all but unknown in Hagaddahs in the 15th Century. Based on clinical examinations of its pages, including ancient salt residue, the DNA of a feather, and ancient dyes, Heath estimates that the hagaddah's provenance dates back to 1492 in Spain, just prior to the Jews' expulsion from that land.
She becomes romantically involved with a colleague while working to prepare the Hagaddah for public display, but more than that, Heath becomes emotionally involved in the dramatic history of the Hagaddah itself. Heath is an unaffiliated Jew, but wonders about the journey this artistically rendered piece of Jewish history must have traveled through the ages. Geraldine Brooks does a masterful job of intertwining Heath's modern-day study of the hagaddah and her personal relationships with a former teacher, the colleague who becomes a love interest, and her cold and aloof mother, a successful surgeon who has hidden the truth to Hanna about the identity of her own father, a mystery that also slowly becomes solved during the course of the book.
Brooks' dramatized renderings of how the hagaddah may have passed from hand to hand, from a Jewish family in Sarajevo during World War II all the way back to Seville in 1480, are finely drawn, each episode dramatically engaging while also painting the agonizing truth of anti-Semitism through the ages, from the Nazis of World War II back to the Church's book-burnings of 17th Century Rome that nearly consumed the hagaddah.
The drama continues as the work of the restoration of the haggadah continues, and as Hanna Heath slowly discovers the truth of her own personal history, along with that of the Sarajevo hagaddah.
It's an outstanding read, and Brooks' own knowledge of research of Jewish history, and the fascinating world of rare book examinations and forensics, adds to the reading delight.
She becomes romantically involved with a colleague while working to prepare the Hagaddah for public display, but more than that, Heath becomes emotionally involved in the dramatic history of the Hagaddah itself. Heath is an unaffiliated Jew, but wonders about the journey this artistically rendered piece of Jewish history must have traveled through the ages. Geraldine Brooks does a masterful job of intertwining Heath's modern-day study of the hagaddah and her personal relationships with a former teacher, the colleague who becomes a love interest, and her cold and aloof mother, a successful surgeon who has hidden the truth to Hanna about the identity of her own father, a mystery that also slowly becomes solved during the course of the book.
Brooks' dramatized renderings of how the hagaddah may have passed from hand to hand, from a Jewish family in Sarajevo during World War II all the way back to Seville in 1480, are finely drawn, each episode dramatically engaging while also painting the agonizing truth of anti-Semitism through the ages, from the Nazis of World War II back to the Church's book-burnings of 17th Century Rome that nearly consumed the hagaddah.
The drama continues as the work of the restoration of the haggadah continues, and as Hanna Heath slowly discovers the truth of her own personal history, along with that of the Sarajevo hagaddah.
It's an outstanding read, and Brooks' own knowledge of research of Jewish history, and the fascinating world of rare book examinations and forensics, adds to the reading delight.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.