People of the Book

By Geraldine Brooks – 2008 – 384pp

This wonderfully rich and complex historical fiction novel moves around the world from Australia to Boston to Bosnia to the Middle East, as it alternates between past and present. Hanna, a rare book expert, is asked to examine the Sarajevo Haggadah. Her findings unravel the history of the book and the story illuminates portions of history that are not familiar to everyone. The clues she finds in the book and the details of its creation are fascinating. It is one of those rare books that entices you to reread it immediately!

Wednesday, November 18 at 2:30pm in Slaviana’s room.

Useful Links

A Torah Scribe Pushes the Parchment Ceiling
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/arts/design/08sfculture.html?_r=1

A recent article in the NY Times tells the story of a contemporary Hebrew scribe working on a new reproduction of the Torah.  Ms. Julie Seltzer is one of very few women in the world practiced in the craft of writing holy scripts.  She can be seen working on the project through fall 2010 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

Geraldine Brooks
http://www.geraldinebrooks.com/

Brooks’ official web site is rich in links and information.

Sarajevo Haggadah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarajevo_Haggadah

This article from Wikipedia has a brief history of the Sarajevo Haggadah.

Sarajevo Haggadah
http://www.haggadah.ba/?x=2&y=1#

This web site is designed to sell official facsimiles of the book. It has wonderful images of pages from the haggadah. A brief history is also available.