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.
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