Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book is one of those novels that you can't get out of your mind. I read it months ago and it still haunts me. Here is a truly different mystery/adventure tale, with beautifully drawn characters and an intricate plot that weaves contemporary headlines together with exotic historical tales--all complete with a message for this very moment. This is a book that enlightened me and changed me.
The story centers on Hanna Heath, a modern-day restorer of antique books (I gravitate toward stories about academics because I like to think that all college professors, like myself, are traveling around the world saving rare artifacts while being chased by villains, rather than spending boring day after day in their offices reading student papers). I knew nothing about the world of antique book restoration before reading this book, (aside from working in a college book bindery for four years when I was in school), but it's a truly fascinating world. Book restorers combine the amazing technological wizardry of the scientist with the delicate sensitivity of the artist (my favorite combination).
In the story, Hanna is asked to restore a rare book called the Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautiful, ancient illustrated manuscript of Hebrew history. This is the "book" of the title and Hanna's attempts to restore it require her to investigate the book's history--how and why it was created and all of its travels that have eventually landed it where it is today. As she begins her work on the Haggadah, she discovers microscopic objects in the book's binding--an insect wing, a wine stain, a salt crystal, and a white hair--all of which are clues to the book's past and its journey.
As she examines each object, the author whisks us back in time to the era when the tiny object first found its way into the book. Soon, we are engrossed in a faraway place and totally new and unusual characters, as we discover their involvement in the birth and growth of the Haggadah. But soon, just when we seen how each tiny object is relevant to the book, we are drawn back to the present, and Hanna's struggle to investigate and protect the book from the unknown criminals who would destroy it. Slowly, but inevitably, we discover the book's complete story, through all the amazing characters who worked so hard to create, protect (many with their lives), and preserve it throughout history.
I finished this book with a sense of satisfaction much greater than I typically experience from most adventure novels I read. The main characters all represent different religions and cultures, but all are unique in that they are victims during their own times of horrendous prejudice and religious persecution. Yet, they all exhibit amazing strength of character and willingness to sacrifice personal comfort and fulfillment for the betterment of others and for the protection of the book (which comes to represent, for the reader, the soul of a cultural and religious community).
People of the Book shows dramatically that intolerance is not new; individuals have been fighting it for centuries. If we only had more people fighting it like the characters in this novel, maybe it could be eliminated. If everyone read Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book, I believe hardened hearts would melt.
The story centers on Hanna Heath, a modern-day restorer of antique books (I gravitate toward stories about academics because I like to think that all college professors, like myself, are traveling around the world saving rare artifacts while being chased by villains, rather than spending boring day after day in their offices reading student papers). I knew nothing about the world of antique book restoration before reading this book, (aside from working in a college book bindery for four years when I was in school), but it's a truly fascinating world. Book restorers combine the amazing technological wizardry of the scientist with the delicate sensitivity of the artist (my favorite combination).
In the story, Hanna is asked to restore a rare book called the Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautiful, ancient illustrated manuscript of Hebrew history. This is the "book" of the title and Hanna's attempts to restore it require her to investigate the book's history--how and why it was created and all of its travels that have eventually landed it where it is today. As she begins her work on the Haggadah, she discovers microscopic objects in the book's binding--an insect wing, a wine stain, a salt crystal, and a white hair--all of which are clues to the book's past and its journey.
As she examines each object, the author whisks us back in time to the era when the tiny object first found its way into the book. Soon, we are engrossed in a faraway place and totally new and unusual characters, as we discover their involvement in the birth and growth of the Haggadah. But soon, just when we seen how each tiny object is relevant to the book, we are drawn back to the present, and Hanna's struggle to investigate and protect the book from the unknown criminals who would destroy it. Slowly, but inevitably, we discover the book's complete story, through all the amazing characters who worked so hard to create, protect (many with their lives), and preserve it throughout history.
I finished this book with a sense of satisfaction much greater than I typically experience from most adventure novels I read. The main characters all represent different religions and cultures, but all are unique in that they are victims during their own times of horrendous prejudice and religious persecution. Yet, they all exhibit amazing strength of character and willingness to sacrifice personal comfort and fulfillment for the betterment of others and for the protection of the book (which comes to represent, for the reader, the soul of a cultural and religious community).
People of the Book shows dramatically that intolerance is not new; individuals have been fighting it for centuries. If we only had more people fighting it like the characters in this novel, maybe it could be eliminated. If everyone read Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book, I believe hardened hearts would melt.
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