PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

by Geraldine Brooks | Publication: January 2, 2008
Viking Books | Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★★

"People of the Book is a story of history, art, and survival that empowers and renews."

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The "complex and moving" (The New Yorker) novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war.
Inspired by a true story, "People of the Book" is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author.
Called "a tour de force" by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain.

When it falls to Australian rare book expert Hanna Heath to conserve this priceless work, the tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—a butterfly wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock the book’s deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

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A Story of Survival

Why I Read This Book
It sat on my shelf for years, but that wasn’t why I finally picked it up. While preparing a Sunday School series on the Book of Nehemiah, I stumbled upon an anonymous commentary titled A People of the Book. The writer noted how reading God's word empowered the people, stating:

“The people are moved to praise God, to weep over their sins, to change their behavior,
and to make renewed promises to God.”
Geraldine Brooks’s PEOPLE OF THE BOOK does not deal with the Word of God, but it absolutely deals with His people.

The Artifact and Its Journey
The inspiration for this novel is the Sarajevo Haggadah, the real-life pride of the Bosnian National Museum. Written and illustrated in mid-14th-century Spain, its survival is miraculous. It escaped the Spanish Inquisition and Nazi book burnings. Decades later, as Serbian forces bombed Sarajevo’s libraries during the Bosnian War (1992–1995), it was smuggled into a bank vault.

The manuscript was carried across centuries by individuals driven by a single motive: cultural survival. As Brooks beautifully notes through her characters:

“Of course, a book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand... Sometimes in the quiet, these people speak to me. They let me see what their intentions were, and it helps me to do my work.”
The Criticisms
To look at the difficult parts first, Brooks’s background as a journalist is highly evident. While she packs the narrative with deep historical background, mysteries, and interesting twists, the book struggles to find its footing. Historical fiction needs a smooth entry point to let the reader sink in; instead, the first 100 pages felt like a trial. The prose is readable, but it initially lacks emotional drive.

Characterization is meant to be a vital anchor here, but I found little room for humor, wordplay, or emotional color. For a historical novel to truly come alive, readers must attach themselves to the characters through psychological or emotional impact. Without that, the past can feel distant.

Why I Kept Reading
Despite these hurdles, three core elements compelled me to read on:

1. Rich History: What the novel lacks in prose, it makes up for in historical depth. Curiosity kept me turning the pages. Following the clues uncovered by book conservator Hanna Heath felt like walking backward through time until the present finally caught up. The revelations were astounding.
2. The Power of Art: The book masterfully explores how humanity uses art to record history, express faith, and react to tragedy. It honors the religious communities that recorded their heritages with passion. It even beautifully links this theme to the modern preservation of ancient Aboriginal rock art in Australia.
3. The Theme of Survival: The novel wrestles deeply with survival during armed conflict, religious persecution, and deceit. A poignant quote summarizes this beautifully:

“...the haggadah came to Sarajevo for a reason. It was here to test us, to see if 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."
Final Verdict
In the fewest possible words, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK is a story of history, art, and survival that empowers and renews. Brooks’s fictionalized history of the Sarajevo Haggadah is, in the end, curiously inspiring.

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About the Author:

Geraldine Brooks is the author of six novels, including Horse, People of the Book, Year of Wonders, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning March. She has also written acclaimed works of nonfiction, including Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. Born and raised in Australia, Brooks divides her time between Sydney and Martha’s Vineyard.
Photo from Penguin Random House Canada.

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