It's not that it was badly written, although the jumping around of times and places didn't sit well with me. Mainly it there were too many parts that took place during war times and those made me uncomfortable. Too bad because it's a great subject. But when I went to bed I didn't look forward to reading, and decided after a couple of weeks of this, that life is too short to slog through a book you don't like. There have been an unprecedented number of these this year. Maybe it's me... ( )

La Haggadah de Sarajevo, uno de los libros más excepcionales y misteriosos del mundo, ha reaparecido tras permanecer oculto muchos años y las Naciones Unidas reclaman a Hanna Heath, una prestigiosa conservadora de manuscritos medievales para que compruebe su estado. Cuando Hanna procede a su estudio, descubre entre sus páginas una serie de extrañas muestras: un ala de insecto, un cabello blanco, una mancha de vino… A partir de cada una de las muestras, la historia del libro es reconstruida a través del tiempo; un periplo que incluye Sarajevo en 1940, la hedonista Viena de 1894, la antisemita Venecia de 1609, la Tarragona sometida por la Inquisición de 1492 y la conspiradora Sevilla de 1480 donde fue ilustrado.

La Haggadah es un texto judío que se recita durante el Seder de Pesaj (Pascua judía). Su propósito principal es contar la historia del Éxodo de Egipto, siguiendo el mandato bíblico de recordar y narrar esta liberación a las futuras generaciones.

El contenido de la Haggadah incluye:

1. Relato del Éxodo: la historia de cómo los israelitas fueron liberados de la esclavitud en Egipto.
2. Plegarias y bendiciones: oraciones específicas para el Seder.
3. Cuatro preguntas (Mah Nishtaná): preguntas formuladas por los niños para despertar la curiosidad sobre las particularidades de la noche de Pesaj.
4. Cánticos y poemas: canciones tradicionales como «Dayenu» y «Chad Gadya».
5. Interpretaciones rabínicas: explicaciones y comentarios de los sabios judíos sobre los eventos del Éxodo.

La Haggadah es una mezcla de narrativa, ritual y enseñanza, diseñada para ser interactiva y educativa, fomentando la participación de todos los presentes en el Seder.

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+INFO sobre Geraldine Brokks: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Brooks.
+INFO sobre la Haggadahh: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagadá_de_Sarajevo.
+INFO sobre «Los guardianes del Libro» https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_Book_(novel) ( )

People of the Book is a semi-imagined history of a 500-year-old illuminated manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah (Jewish prayer book). The book really exists and some of the events depicted in the novel actually occurred, though Brooks stresses that none of the principal characters were drawn directly from life.

The narrative swaps between the mid-nineties to early-noughties "present" and a reverse chronology of the haggadah's creation and subsequent changing of hands. This journey takes us to Yugoslavia at the outbreak of the second world war, fin-de-siecle Vienna and 15th century Seville among other places.

Brooks has created a mixed bag of characters. The present-day book conservator, Hanna Heath, is a consummate craftswoman charged with readying the Haggadah for exhibition as the dust is still settling over Sarajevo after the 1990's war. Hanna is Australian, a fact that Brooks beats you over the head with at every opportunity. I found Hanna's character difficult to believe in. On the one hand, she's a highly-educated, well-travelled, skilled technician and on the other she uses archaic Strine in a way I've never heard anyone do in the real world.

Happily, the historical characters are much more engaging. Lola, a Jewish teenager in Sarajevo who narrowly escapes the clutches of the invading Nazis to life on the run in the mountains with a rag-tag band of baby guerillas. Florien Mittl, an anti-Semitic Viennese book-binder dying of tertiary syphilis. Domenico Vistorini, a Catholic priest and Inquisition censor, and charismatic Judah Aryeh, rabbi and denizen of the original "geto" in early 17th century Venice. Their lives, and the politics and social pressures of their times, each propel the haggadah from one unlikely custodian to the next.

Geraldine Brooks is an excellent historical novelist. She takes the gaps between what and who are known and documented, and fills them in with such precision that you can smell the boiling gall, hear the swish of oars in the canal, feel the walls of tiny ghetto dwellings closing in. She gives such a strong sense of place and time that it's jarring to be wrenched back to 1996 to some vitriolic argument between Hanna and her truly awful mother. The book really shines when we're in Venice or Seville hundreds of years ago. It falls down in post-war Sarajevo, Boston, London and Sydney.

A guest on ABC TV's First Tuesday Bookclub suggested to viewers who were new to Brooks' work that they start with Year of Wonders or March, but existing fans would enjoy this novel. As a fan, I did enjoy the book, but can see it's weaknesses. These I choose to forgive. ( )

This was good but I wanted it to be better.

I loved the concept but didn't really love any of the people and I think the writer wanted me too.

I'm glad I didn't look for photos of the real Sarajevo Haggadah because the images in my mind were more spectacular than the real thing - credit there to both the cover art and to Geraldine Brooks because the chapter on how Zahra learned to paint really made me conjure up something different in my mind.

Overall I feel good about the author and would read more of her work. ( )

Wonderful story! This is a book lover's book.

Generally I dislike books where chapters bounce around from one time period to another, but this book proved the exception.

Briefly, "People of the Book" begins with an Aussie conservator arriving in 1996 Sarajevo to work on an ancient Haggadah. In every other chapter we read about her relationships and her travels across Europe, to the US and back to Australia while researching this beautiful, ancient book.

The alternating chapters reach back in time moving through the chain of people through the centuries who kept the book safe from wars and book burnings until we finally get to discover the artist who created it. Each of the stories is wonderfully told.

I agree with the book jacket that it’s a “..compulsively readable adventure story…” ( )