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People of the Book
When an Australian rare-book conservator named Hanna Heath finds a butterfly wing, a salt crystal, a white hair, and bloodstains in the recently rediscovered Sarajevo Haggadah, a late-medieval illuminated codex of uncertain provenance, she sets out to solve the mystery of the book?s origins. To her disappointment, analysis of the specimens reveals little. ?It?s too bad,? an organic chemist tells her. ?Blood is potentially so dramatic.? Brooks, beginning where science leaves off, uses Hanna?s finds as entry points to richly imagined historical landscapes peopled by the Haggadah?s creators, protectors, and would-be destroyers?a female Muslim slave in Convivencia Spain, a Jewish doctor in fin-de-siècle Vienna, an alcoholic priest in seventeenth-century Venice. Their narratives alternate with Hanna?s own, and the final, multilayered effect is complex and moving.
When an Australian rare-book conservator named Hanna Heath finds a butterfly wing, a salt crystal, a white hair, and bloodstains in the recently rediscovered Sarajevo Haggadah, a late-medieval illuminated codex of uncertain provenance, she sets out to solve the mystery of the book?s origins. To her disappointment, analysis of the specimens reveals little. ?It?s too bad,? an organic chemist tells her. ?Blood is potentially so dramatic.? Brooks, beginning where science leaves off, uses Hanna?s finds as entry points to richly imagined historical landscapes peopled by the Haggadah?s creators, protectors, and would-be destroyers?a female Muslim slave in Convivencia Spain, a Jewish doctor in fin-de-siècle Vienna, an alcoholic priest in seventeenth-century Venice. Their narratives alternate with Hanna?s own, and the final, multilayered effect is complex and moving.
Readers guide and map now available
http://www.geraldinebrooks.com/people.html
http://www.geraldinebrooks.com/people.html
You can now download a reading guide and map for People of the Book. Visit the book section at the website above.
You can catch up with Geraldine Brooks at her readings and presentations. Click for her schedule.
"It was here to test us, to see if there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us..." from People of the Book
You can catch up with Geraldine Brooks at her readings and presentations. Click for her schedule.
"It was here to test us, to see if there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us..." from People of the Book
Call Sammy at 833-7637, or e-mail at salzofon@comcast.net
for additional information and meeting site.
for additional information and meeting site.
2008 Book Club Meeting Dates
December 17
2009 Book Club Meeting Dates
February 25
April 22
June 10
December 17
2009 Book Club Meeting Dates
February 25
April 22
June 10
