Dull? Boring? A few of the reviewers must have read a different book than I. I was captivated from the first page. Each person involved with the conception and life of the Sarajavo Haggadah is uniquely interesting. Hanna, the rare book expert charged with analyzing the manuscript, is endearing and vital. Her quest to unlock the mysteries she finds within the pages of the book is believable and expertly rendered by the author. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey from Bosnia to Venice to Spain, being entertained, educated and enlightened with every step. Read it...you won't be disappointed.

When Hannah Heath, a rare book dealer, begins her investigation into the Sarajevo Haggadah, an iluminated 15th century text, she has no idea of what the future holds for her. So goes Geraldines Brooks' newest book, People of the Book, a thrilling read that is sure to keep your fingers turning pages.

Written in Spain during the inquisition, the Sarajevo Haggadah has been passed down from one owner to the next. It has served a variety of masters in a variety of ways. Hannah Heath in studying the book discovers hints, a hair, an insect wing, salt crystals, that hint at the books story.

Geraldine Brooks is a marvelous author. I must say that she handles history and historical twists as well a James A. Michener. In fact, reading People of the Book reminded me a lot of Michener's The Source. Different stories in different times to be sure, but the feel of the two books is similar. Brooks' use of characters to enhance and drive her story also reminds me of Michener.

People of the Book is a very good read. I highly recommend it.

Id been waiting for this book since I read the excerpt in the New Yorker last month. It didn't disappoint. The vignettes of each time period were expertly done, all of the characters well drawn, the history as timely as today. The love of books, history, art come through very well through the entire book. The horrors of the past and how they keep repeating themselves was very well expressed without being hammered into the reader. Given my track record with this author (I didn't care for her other two fiction books, tho I do love her non fiction), I was very very impressed.

Two things that are keeping this from being a five star for me. There was too much about Hanna. Her character obviously is important, but the whole love affair, her problems with her mother, all of that could easily have been taken out. And that last chapter sounded like something from a Mission Impossible movie, and was totally unnecessary.

The other thing was the ommission of Leila's meeting with Sula's son, in Israel. This is described in the article but for some reason was left out of the book. Its a beautiful and moving moment, and needed to be there.

That being said, I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for an excellent read.

This book revolves around a rare book, the Sarajevo Haggadah. The author takes for granted the reader knows the magnitude of this book and its meaning. No suspense or awe is built up and much is lost because of it's not. There are several instances where the reader is alienated and other things are taken for granted. Done in a different order and with it built up this might have been good. My interest waned quickly. In fact, I was downright bored. It's far from a thrill ride.

In this grand saga of history, war and memory, author Geraldine Brooks follows the path of the world-famous Sarajevo Haggadah. Unique because of its extraordinarily rich illuminations, the manuscript came to represent all of the suffering of the Bosnian Jews, particularly throughout the twentieth century. Believed to have been created in 14th century Spain, there lies deep within the book's beautiful pages the standard elements of prayers, poems and stories about the Jews exodus from Egypt that traditionally guided Passover.

It is in 1996 when Australian rare books expert Hanna Heath is offered the job to inspect and conserve the manuscript's condition in the hope that it can be exhibited as soon as possible to raise the morale of war-torn Sarajevo. Known throughout the academic world for her research and frequently applauded for her experiences in book restoration, Hanna is an extremely ambitious individual and is well aware that this job is a once in a lifetime career-maker.

Encouraged by the goodwill of the United Nations, Hanna travels to Sarajevo in the hope she can make a good documentation of the book so the authorities can at least print a beautiful facsimile to present to the world. Even before the plane lands, Hanna sees the destructive results of the Bosnian war, this devastated city, passing in a blur of "shrapnel-splashed buildings," as the book, now placed in a safe-deposit box in the vault of the central bank, is possibly in danger of disintegrating.

Assisted by the librarian Ozren Karaman, the young chief of the National University of Bosnia, Hanna begins her analysis of the work. She observes that the soiled and scuffed binding is of an ordinary nineteenth century style and that the parchments are now bound in simple cardboard covers. The dark brown calfskin spine and corners have begun flaking away and there are also no clasps on the binding. Also, the book is in real danger of being exposed to the wild swings of the Sarajevan temperature.

The burnished gold of the illuminations, so fresh and so blazing suddenly overwhelm Hanna, along with the numerous miniature paintings created at a time when most Jews considered figurative art a violation of the commandments. But what is most fascinating about the work is the discovery of three items buried deep within the codex: a small piece of a butterfly wing, a red stain that at first glance looks to be wine, samples of what appears to be sea salt, and a fine white hair.

It is the unearthing of these pieces that jump-start Hanna's spellbinding journey into the dark secrets of the Haggadah, a volume with a turbulent history that has survived war and exodus and the evils of the Catholic Inquisition. Made when the vast Islamic empire was the bright light of the dark ages, the book existed at a time where science and poetry still flourished even as the Jews, tortured and killed by Christians, were hoping to find a measure of peace somewhere in the world.

As the history of this manuscript steadily unfolds, Hanna finds herself gradually drawn to the battered and beaten down Ozren. His child, once a victim of the war, is now lying in a local hospital with brain damage, any hope of reviving him a dream at best. But as Hanna urges Ozren to seek the help of Western doctors, she must also contend with the constant resentment of her ambitious mother, an accomplished neurosurgeon who is of the mind that Hanna has squandered her opportunity to enter a "real profession," instead wasting her life as a "tradeswoman."

Obviously Hanna's exploration of the Haggadah, her affair with Ozren, and her troubled relationship with her mother form the core of the novel, but the scattered history of the manuscript and its journey down through the ages also plays a critical part. Moving from Spain in the 1500's, to Venice in 1609, to 1894 Vienna, and onto Sarajevo in the midst of the 2nd World War