“There is a sentence at the end of this book that summarizes its theme perfectly "...there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox." This theme is repeated throughout the book as the main character, Hannah, a rare book expert, tries to piece together the story behind the Sarajevo Haggadah, a book she is asked to analyze and restore after it is found safe and sound in wartorn Bosnia. This central theme and how it is woven throughout the various stories of the people that created and protected the Haggadah is what I enjoyed most about "People of the Book". I wanted to know more about all of these characters. I also really enjoyed the history. My only criticism is that one of the stories - "Feather and the Rose" - did not seem to fit the central theme and was therefore distracting to me. And up until the very end I struggled a bit with the chronology in particular trying to figure out how the book got to Bosnia in the first place.”
posted Monday, May 26 2008