The People of the Book is a fictionalized account of the miraculous story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, an actual 15th century illuminated manuscript that contains the illustrated traditional text that accompanies the Passover Seder. As Brooks explains in the afterword little is known about the history of this holy book, apart from that it has been saved from destruction on at least three occasions, twice by Muslims and once by a Roman Catholic priest. The manuscript itself is small, the binding soiled and scuffed, but its lavish illuminations "as interpreted in the Midrash," created "at a time when most Jews considered figurative art a violation of the commandments" are stunning. The protagonist, antique manuscript conservator Hanna Heath is summoned to Sarajevo in the spring of 1996 to examine the book before it is put on display.
To understand the work of the craftsmen who created the medieval texts she restores, Hanna has made her own gold leaf, is familiar with "the intense red known as worm scarlet…extracted from tree-dwelling insects," and the blue "intense as a midsummer sky, obtained from grinding precious lapis lazuli." Looking closely at the parchment of the Haggadah, she can tell it comes from "the skin of a now-extinct breed of thick-haired Spanish mountain sheep." Hanna believes that damage and wear reveal much about a book and how and where it has been used. As she works on the book, she discovers a fragment of an insect's wing, a single hair, a place for missing clasps, and these prove the springboard for Brooks' expansive story.
Brooks, who won a Pulitzer for her previous novel March
However much I wished Brooks had found a more elegant way to tie up the many strings of her narrative, I nevertheless found the book an engrossing read. Her writing is, at times, luminous and her lush details, at once celebratory and elegiac, bring the worlds and artistry of the ancient Haggadah to life for the reader. This book will appeal to fans of television show History's Mysteries, but also the sort of reader who picks up a book just for the feel of it. And in the age of the all-pervasive e-reader, perhaps we ought to treat all our bound books as precious, and holy.
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