By Geraldine Brooks
(Reviewed by Nancy Jelinek)

The Sarajevo Haggadah is an illuminated manuscript created in 14th-century Spain. Containing the traditional text of the Passover, it is among the oldest Sephardic Haggadahs in the world. It came to be in Bosnia by the end of the 15th century with Jews exiled from Spain in 1492. In 1894, the book became the property of the Sarajevo Museum. It was protected during the German occupation of World War II by the museum’s director. He smuggled it out of Sarajevo to be hidden in the home of a Muslim cleric, later to be returned to the museum after the war.

When the Bosnia War started in 1992, the Haggadah was placed in a metal box in a bank vault, but it was later restored and put on permanent display in December 2002. People of the Book is a work of fiction built around this very real treasure.

Book conservator Hanna Heath is not used to people invading her work space; but in the Sarajevo of 1996, bank guards, Bosnian policemen, and United Nations peacekeepers are all waiting for the representative of the National Museum to arrive before taking the manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah out of the bank vault. There is a concern about the current condition of the manuscript. Hanna is present to document the condition and to take pictures so a facsimile can be created.

When Dr. Ozren Karaman finally brings the Haggadah to her, she begins her investigation and notes the following: clasps are missing from the binding; the chemical makeup of the paints used in the illustrations must be determined, as well as a russet stain that may be wine and “a rime of cube-shaped crystals” that turns out to be table salt; and a Latin phrase at the end of the Hebrew text means it was saved from burning by a Catholic priest. A fragment of an insect’s wing and a fine white hair caught in a thread fiber add to the mystery.

People of the Book creates a credible history of the Sarajevo Haggadah from the fictional Hanna’s clues, starting in the present and going back to the creation of this manuscript based on her investigation. In between the proposed history chapters, we learn of Hanna’s growing relationship with Ozren, her stormy relationship with her mother, and betrayal by trusted colleagues. Geraldine Brooks’ mix of historical fact and fiction is a treasure and a pleasure to read.  

Geraldine Brooks is the author of Year of Wonders and the Pulitzer Prize–winning March.