Great read...
This book takes you on a journey as you discover the history of an ancient Jewish prayer book. The author skillfully weaves the tales of everyone who has touched the book and impacted it's history while relating the story of religious conflict, persecution and times of cooperation between Muslims, Jews and Christians throughout the Centuries. This is all done while telling the story of the young woman who is sent to restore the book.
Well written; a book that I truly enjoyed!

Book for All People
Geraldine Brooks did it again! This book should capture the reader from the very first line. My book group reviewed People of the Book recently and gave it high ratings; everyone took something different away from the story. Not only will the reader discover what a book conservationist is, but the importance of maintaining & preserving books throughout history. The main character is like a detective who can take a grain of salt found in the binding of an ancient prayer book, research it, then discover the exact location where it came from. From that tiny grain of salt, she weaves a whole story that connects to the next discovered particle - until she pieces together the entire background of the prayer book. The final piece of the puzzle links together why and how the book came to be found in a Sarajevo library. The book highlights the common thread among all religions that many lose sight of in today's world.

A Pleasant Surprise
I first heard about the book on a radio program. I found the book at the library, recognized the title and decided to give it a shot. What good fortune it was! The best book I read this summer...well written, interesting, enlighten and couldn't put it down. The fiction is believable, facts accurate and story plausible. what more can you ask for in historical fiction!

Beautiful
I saw this book at BN when it came out in December and would not have read it had I not read an article written by Geraldine Brooks published in "The New Yorker" on December 3, 2007, later that same week. The article tells the almost unbelievable but TRUE story of the Sarajevo Haggadah - how Dervis Efendi Korkut, a devout Muslim, saved the Haggadah from confiscation by the Nazis, how he and his wife Servet also saved Mira Papo, a Jewish girl, how he was later tried as a Nazi Sympathizer, how Mira later encountered Servet and leared of the pending trial but failed to testify on his behalf at that trial and then later redeemed herself by writing an account of his deeds that resulted in Dervis and Servet being declared Righteous Amonig Nations by the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous at Yad Vashem (yeah, this is a bad sentence). I keep a photocopy of the article with my copy of the book.

Having read the article, I bought the book. Given the known facts about the book and the amazing story about the people involved in its rescue from the Nazis, it was enjoyable to read a FICTIONAL account about how a Spanish Haggadah written in Hebrew but illuminated with Islamic ornamentation (Brooks points out that Jews, Christians and Muslims peacefully co-existed in Spain during a time known as the Convivencia) could travel from Morocco to Spain to Venice to Vienna, and ultimately resurface in the twice war-torn Sarajevo of our time. In a time where "Christians" and "Muslims" "hate" each other while equally "hating" the "Jews" it is refreshing to see just a glimmer of what we could all be and accomplish if we could see past the labels we put on each other.

If any of the negative reviews have you worried - read the article first if you can, then read the book.

People of the Book
This book is pure shlock. After having read and enjoyed her previous book, March, I expected much better. The "clues" provided in the manuscript lead to obvious but absurdly far-fetched conclusions by the extremely annoying and self-satisfied Aussie narrator. She manages to be both extremely sorry for herself and convinced of her own righteousness and brilliance at the same time. The other characters are stereotypical and predictable, and they all succumb to cliched but lurid Jewish fates. Don't waste your money on this potboiler.