People Of The Book
by Deb McVittie
December 20th, 2010 12:47 PM
People of the Book is Geraldine Brooks’s response to her inspiration about the true story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a priceless illuminated manuscript telling the story of the Jews exodus from Egypt.
She first learned of the rare Hebrew codex while in Sarajevo covering the Bosnian war as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. From the roots of the true story, Brooks weaves a riveting literary mystery that follows the multicultural history of the Haggadah and the people involved with it over the years. And as she did in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March, the author makes a passionate case about the moral and physical costs of war and the importance of tolerance.
The story opens in 1996 as Hanna Heath, an Australian loner and rare book restorer, travels to war-torn Bosnia where she has won the contract to conserve the rare volume which has been rescued and hidden from the Nazis by a Muslim librarian. While working on the Haggadah, Hanna retrieves a number of artifacts from its ancient binding and parchment -- an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair -- which provide clues to the book's origins.
Each artifact opens a chapter in the book's history as the story then begins to unfold in reverse. We follow the “people of the book” back through five centuries of perilous journeys – Vienna during the Inquisition, 17th century Venice, 16th century Tarragona, to medieval Spain – mirroring Hanna’s quest to determine the creator of the original manuscript. Along the way she consults with scientists and experts as she traces the book’s convoluted history, its many salvations, and the individuals she imagines had a hand in its wanderings. These include a 15-year-old girl who joins the Communist partisan resistance in 1941, a Catholic priest who saves the Haggadah from Inquisition book burnings, an exiled scribe who wrote the text, a syphilitic bookbinder who bungled the 1894 rebinding and a young illustrator sold into slavery in Seville.
As Hanna prepares to write an essay for the exhibition catalogue, she hopes to have the answers to some of the codex's mysteries. “I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it." Beyond the technical aspects of her work she acknowledges, "There is something else, too. It has to do with an intuition about the past. By linking research and imagination, sometimes I can think myself into the heads of the people who made the book. I can figure out who they were, or how they worked."
This novel is infused with a sense of building suspense that derives from Brooks's method of beginning with the most recent historical chapter and moving back in time toward the manuscript's ultimate mystery: the identity of the illuminator who provided the images that the Third Commandment forbids. The narrative contains layers beyond the historical adventure of the Haggadah. Brooks does an excellent job of conveying both the technical and the imaginative sides of the conservator's work, and Hanna's relationship with her mother and a Sarajevo love interest add another dimension to the novel. Hanna pieces together clues about herself while investigating the dilemma of the book, and the two threads of story are tied together gracefully.
People of the Book is a novel with a keen sense of voice and dramatic pacing. As well as creating a swashbuckling read, Brooks leaves us with a tale that is haunting and soulful; the telling of one people’s story of survival against the backdrop of every individual’s relationship to the past. This is a compulsive read that transcends the boundaries of mere storytelling. Enjoy!
Deb McVittie is the owner of 32 Books Co. in Edgemont Village
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Feb - Mar 08
She first learned of the rare Hebrew codex while in Sarajevo covering the Bosnian war as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. From the roots of the true story, Brooks weaves a riveting literary mystery that follows the multicultural history of the Haggadah and the people involved with it over the years. And as she did in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March, the author makes a passionate case about the moral and physical costs of war and the importance of tolerance.
The story opens in 1996 as Hanna Heath, an Australian loner and rare book restorer, travels to war-torn Bosnia where she has won the contract to conserve the rare volume which has been rescued and hidden from the Nazis by a Muslim librarian. While working on the Haggadah, Hanna retrieves a number of artifacts from its ancient binding and parchment -- an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair -- which provide clues to the book's origins.
Each artifact opens a chapter in the book's history as the story then begins to unfold in reverse. We follow the “people of the book” back through five centuries of perilous journeys – Vienna during the Inquisition, 17th century Venice, 16th century Tarragona, to medieval Spain – mirroring Hanna’s quest to determine the creator of the original manuscript. Along the way she consults with scientists and experts as she traces the book’s convoluted history, its many salvations, and the individuals she imagines had a hand in its wanderings. These include a 15-year-old girl who joins the Communist partisan resistance in 1941, a Catholic priest who saves the Haggadah from Inquisition book burnings, an exiled scribe who wrote the text, a syphilitic bookbinder who bungled the 1894 rebinding and a young illustrator sold into slavery in Seville.
As Hanna prepares to write an essay for the exhibition catalogue, she hopes to have the answers to some of the codex's mysteries. “I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it." Beyond the technical aspects of her work she acknowledges, "There is something else, too. It has to do with an intuition about the past. By linking research and imagination, sometimes I can think myself into the heads of the people who made the book. I can figure out who they were, or how they worked."
This novel is infused with a sense of building suspense that derives from Brooks's method of beginning with the most recent historical chapter and moving back in time toward the manuscript's ultimate mystery: the identity of the illuminator who provided the images that the Third Commandment forbids. The narrative contains layers beyond the historical adventure of the Haggadah. Brooks does an excellent job of conveying both the technical and the imaginative sides of the conservator's work, and Hanna's relationship with her mother and a Sarajevo love interest add another dimension to the novel. Hanna pieces together clues about herself while investigating the dilemma of the book, and the two threads of story are tied together gracefully.
People of the Book is a novel with a keen sense of voice and dramatic pacing. As well as creating a swashbuckling read, Brooks leaves us with a tale that is haunting and soulful; the telling of one people’s story of survival against the backdrop of every individual’s relationship to the past. This is a compulsive read that transcends the boundaries of mere storytelling. Enjoy!
Deb McVittie is the owner of 32 Books Co. in Edgemont Village
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Feb - Mar 08
