Kjellquist Blog

I just finished reading Geraldine Brooks’ book, People of the Book. This book is a little different for me. It is a novel but not the standard adventure yarn of Berry or Baldacci. According to Wikipedia, People of the Book in Arabic is a term used to designate non-Muslim adherents to faiths which have a book of prayer. The three faiths that are mentioned in the Qur’an as people of the book are Judaism, Sabians and Christianity. In Judaism the term “People of the Book” subsequently became self-applied to refer specifically to the Jewish people and the Torah.

The central “character” in this novel is a Haggadah. The Haggadah (meaning “telling” in Hebrew) is the text that provides the order of the Passover Seder. Reading the Haggadah is a fulfillment of the scriptural commandment to each Jew to “tell your son” about the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus in the Torah. The specific Haggadah in People of the Book is Sarajevo Haggadah.

The Sarajevo Haggadah is a real illuminated manuscript from the 15th century. This rare text is nearly unique because of the beautiful illuminations. Early Jewish law forbid religious illustration. The book has also survived several narrow escapes including focused destructions of Judaic literature in medieval times (Catholic Inquisition) and by the Nazi’s in World War II. Most recently, the book survived Bosnian War attacks by Bosnian Serbs on the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

It is this backdrop that Ms. Brooks weaves into a fascinating 600 year history. She starts with a modern day book conservator working on the book immediately following its rescue in Sarajevo. In the process of the restoration; the restorer, Hanna Heath, finds several artifacts in the binding that link directly back to key events in the book’s life. Chapters in the book represent flashbacks to these events.

The reader is cautioned (as the author describes in notes at the end of the book) though the Sarajevo Haggadah is real, the events and characters in the book are fictional. Ms. Brooks writes so well it is easy to get caught up in the book believing things to be factual.

A side benefit from this book is learning about many Judaic rituals and history.

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