People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Farming of Books selection for November '08
I think this is the last book review I have to catch up on. Everything else I'm reading is "in-progress."
Read this book! I absolutely loved it. It was six stories within one, all wrapped neatly together. This is one of those books that I read and think, "I could never write something like this in a million years." Just from the point of view of story and character development, I would recommend People of the Book. But the story itself is incredibly interesting to follow. It kept me engaged and I actually read it quite quickly - for me (in a week.) Geraldine Brooks' writing style is lovely.
Basically, the plot is this: A 14th century Jewish book, the Sarajevo Haggadah, turns up in modern day Bosnia. An Australian book conserver is charged with getting it in tip-top shape before it is publicly unveiled in the country's war-torn capital city. Besides the romance between the book conserver (Hanna Heath) and the museum curator, we are also told five seperate stories going back in time about the people who protected the book from being destroyed and those who actually wrote it or drew the famous illuminations. The stories are set in 1940 Sarajevo, 1894 Vienna, 1609 Venice, 1492 Tarragona, and 1480 Seville. Brooks masterfully captures the essence of life in these time periods, the major political and social events, and ties it all up in a nice little package. Oh - and then there's a whole little mother-daughter thing going on with Hanna and her famous physician mother.
The only negativity I can think to give this book is this: If you're looking for an uplifting look at the history of Christianity, this isn't it. Not specifically criticizing Christianity, Brooks doesn't portray religions in general, including the Muslim and Jewish faiths, in a terribly great light.
I highly recommend this book. You can borrow my copy if you're here in town! :->
Oh, btw - Geraldine Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for her book March. I own Year of Wonders and will probably put it on by TBR list for next year.
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1 comment:
I saw the link to your review over at SHE IS TOO FOND OF BOOKS so I had to come by and check it out. I just finished the audio version of this book a few days ago and I LOVED it. Here’s the link to my review if you want to check it out.
Have you picked up Year of Wonders yet? I read/reviewed it a while back. Although it was good, it really can’t compare to People of the Book.
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