About this title: In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famous Sarajevo Haggadah, which was rescued during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna discovers a series of tiny artifacts in the book's ancient binding, she begins to unlock its mysteries, tracing the book's journey from its salvation back to its creation. In Bosnia during WW II, a Muslim risks his life to protect the book from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of Vienna, ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780143115007ISBN:0143115006
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. New book at 40% off retail price from a reliable seller. Prompt shipping. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 372 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. From Publishers Weekly: "Reading Geraldine Brooks's remarkable debut novel, Year of Wonders, or more recently March, which won the Pulitzer Prize, it would be easy to forget that she grew up in Australia and worked as a journalist. Now in her dazzling new novel, People of the Book, Brooks allows ... read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 2008-01-01
ISBN-13:9780670018215ISBN:067001821X
Description: Good. EX-LIBRARY copy with usual markings. Dust jacket in protective mylar. Text unmarked. Good solid copy. *Ships Next Business day* read more
"Geraldine Brooks is a master story-teller.
People of the Book is one of those well researched, informative, interesting & suspensful stories that leaves the reader speechless at the end.
Brooks' narrative is rich in detail. It takes the reader to the place and time of the story. It is a wonder that this book did not win Brooks a second Pulitzer.
""People of the Book" is a novel based in fact, and told well, as is anything written by Geraldine Brooks, who is married to popular author Tony Horwitz. "People of the Book" weaves an interesting tale about a beautiful Hebrew manuscript which barely survives from destruction during the fighting in Sarajevo. The Haggadah, as the manuscript is called, is the main character in Brook's novel, around which she shares a beautiful story."
"i am not a great fan of historical fiction, but this book is interesting and inventive and lovely and i'm so glad i read it. it follows the story of a particularly beautiful haggadah, the passover prayer book (am i saying this right?), through various centuries and incredible journeys, in alternating chapters in which you see a contemporary book curator trying to unveil the history of this amazing object, just resurfaced in sarajevo (it's 1996 and the war is raging), then jump back in history and see what really happened. what "really happened" is a masterpiece of creativity and generosity and complexity. it also works quite well as a brief (and sketchy) history of the last six century of jewish life in europe, and helps the ignorant reader (that would be me) get a glimpse of the astounding level of persecution the jews were subjected to in my fair continent at the hand of my church. if you are, as i am, a catholic, you will feel quite humbled and not a little angry. and if you, like me, have been quite outraged by israel's wars of aggressions and indiscriminate violence, you will be given a chance to understand. and understanding is an essential step to peace and reconciliation.
a tension that runs through the book and makes it a very frustrating but brilliant whodunnit is the complete blindness of the contemporary curator, whose studies and researches can take her only a fraction of the way to the truth. this is not just about the density of life and secrets and stories that old objects (and books!) carry with and on them, but also -- and this is certainly a corollary to what i said above -- about how little we know of anything, how many impenetrable mysteries texture history and human life and each individual human existence. we think we know and understand, instead we know absolutely nothing."
"The story grips you from the beginning. The author takes you on a cascade of lives that happened as the book is taken from place to place in it's history."
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