People of the Book

A Novel

By: Geraldine Brooks

Narrated by: Edwina Wren

View our feature on Geraldine Books’s People of the Book.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.

In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.

Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.©2008 Geraldine Brooks; (P)2008 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Praise for People of the Book:

“There’s romance between Brooks and the world, and her writing is as full of heart and curiosity as it is intelligence and judgement.”
—The Boston Globe

“Intelligent, thoughtful, gracefully written, and original . . . Brooks tells a believable and engaging story.”
—The Washington Post

“Intense, gripping . . . People of the Book, like her Pulitzer Prize–winning previous novel March, is a tour de force that delivers a reverberating lesson gleaned from history. . . . It’s a brilliant, innately suspenseful structure, and one that allows Brooks to show off her remarkable aptitude for assimilating research and conveying a wide range of settings. Also on full display is her keen sense of dramatic pacing.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] marvelously intertwined narrative, with one strand tied to the contemporary world and the other leading us back into European history, into wars and inquisitions and family tragedies, all of this making up avidly narrated, powerfully emotional quest.”
—The Dallas Morning News

“Richly imagined and at times almost unbearably exciting. . . . An ambitious book, a pleasure to read, and wholly successful in its attempt to give a sense of how miraculous, unlikely, and ultimately binding the history of objects can be.”
—Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Down with accents

I really felt the reader's use of accents ruined this book. If I had known it was going to be a theatrical production rather than a book I would have read it - not listened. When one reads a book, their mind and imagination interpret how the characters are speaking. In this case this was imposed by the reader and really ruined the book.

Good book, weak reader

This is an intriguing and well-written story but the ridiculously bad accents of the reader are a serious distraction. The reader makes or breaks an audiobook and I'm afraid in this case she almost breaks - certainly fractures - it.

Stunning

A beautiful, oft heartbreaking, story that weaves its way through time and back again. Exceptional narration. If you love history, art and books you must partake of this story.

People of the Book

Loved the book. The history of the book and the people involved in it's progress was awsome. The ending was amazing and satisfying.

truly wonderful

this book kept my attention from beginning to end. It was a beautiful story and a pleasure to read