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Holistic Guidance - People of the Book: A Novel
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $17.13
Your Save: $ 8.82 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780670018215
ISBN: 067001821X
Label: Viking Adult
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Publisher: Viking Adult
Studio: Viking Adult
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Editorial Reviews:
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Amazon Best of the Month, January 2008: One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure. A complex love story, thrilling mystery, vivid history lesson, and celebration of the enduring power of ideas, People of the Book will surely be hailed as one of the best of 2008. --Mari Malcolm 
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Imagined
Comment: This story is so well written. The diverse people involved in the books history and the mysteries of what eventually became of them spark the imagination. I wanted to know more, but really there was no need, it was obvious in most cases. The author was perfect at changing writing styles and placing me in the mini-worlds of these tragic figures. On finishing the book I immediately went on line and looked at pictures of the actual illuminations. It was both intellectually stimulating and a very good read. I look forward to enjoying more from this author.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Journey of a Prayer Book
Comment: When do we consider loss in our own lives? What cost and what effect does loss have on our everyday existence? Is it traumatic only when a loved one passes or is there more of a sense of collective loss when looking at centuries of war, loss of life or needless destruction of towns and cities? How do we measure that loss compared to a loss of love or even when a beloved object goes missing? In reading Geraldine Brooks' novel, one comes away with a personal reflection of what loss means.
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK integrates all of the various and very dissimilar kinds of loss by telling the story of a journey of a beautiful rare meticulously engraved Haggadah.
Pulitzer prize winner Geraldine Brooks does a terrific job with this story. She was able to weave the true story of this missing prayer book into a well written historical fiction novel.
Hanna Heath is our protagonist who is an Australian book conservator summoned to investigate the authenticity of this newly surfaced gem of a prayer book which had been saved from a Bosnian museum by a librarian.
Hanna makes a series of discoveries while examining the find as any ancient book conservator would. She uncovers an insect wing, a thin strand of white hair, a stain that appears to be blood or wine, and some evidence that the prayer book had been near or around salt water. The investigation takes us back in time through centuries to the 1480's in Seville.
Brooks so competantly weaves a tale with intimate details and she introduces us to all of the PEOPLE who touched or were changed by this BOOK. The true story of the Haggadah is a beautiful and intimate study of the basic goodness of mankind through difficult and ominous events and Brooks is successful in capturing that quality in her literary art.
PROS:
Hanna's investigation leads us and her into the depths of intrigue, deception, and suspense. The journey of the book itself helps Hanna find out more about herself as well as truths she never knew existed. Fantastic weaving together of truth and fiction.
CONS:
Only one for me: the last chapter. It was just a little too pat and a bit incredulous. The main reason for this wonderful book not being a perfect five.
Recommended: B
People of the Book: A Novel
Bentley/2008
Customer Rating:
Summary: This book was...
Comment: simply wonderful. Beautifully written, brilliantly researched and compelling.
Geraldine Brooks gets better with every novel. I highly recommend this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a book to be read twice
Comment: No spoiler here...I loved the book!
I think it is a book to be read twice. It is like a "nested doll"; each segment is built on the one that follows. But, it goes backwards.
The story begins with Hanna who is hired to preserve the Sarajevo Haggaadah. She discovers a few clues as to its provenance...a hair, a bit of salt, a stain, missing clips and an insect wing.
Each "clue" takes us further back into the history of the Haggadah. And, when it does, takes us back into another time where you understand how that little bit of something is part of the history of this Haggadah.
In real life, there is a Sarajevo Haggadah; this is what it's provenance might have been.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brooks does it again.
Comment: "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks, relates in well researched, historical detail, the significance of books in society. There is mystery, intrigue and great character development with Hanna as the journey of the Sarajevo Haggadah unfolds. Brooks is a pretty good writer. I read "The March" at the suggestion of my local independent; Latitude 33-and I could not put that one down.
This book is not for everyone but I liked it and found it "illuminating".
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