Reader #82 wrote: PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks is a novel about the Sarajevo Haggadah. Brooks uses a style that I identify with James Michener's book THE SOURCE (also about Jewish history). This style involves discovering a lot of objects connected with the central focus of the novel (in Brooks, the Haggadah, in Michener, an archaeological dig), and then giving the history of each one. In both novels, the description the main characters in the framing story give is occasionally incorrect. One difference is that Brooks focuses on the women in the history, at times to the detriment of verisimilitude. I had a particular interest in this, since we have been to Sarajevo and have a facsimile copy of the Haggadah, but neither of these are pre-requisites. (Looking at a copy of the illustrations on-line might be helpful, though.) Grade: B.
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