Monday, July 19, 2010

New book rec

I just finished People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (who won the Pulitzer for March). It's a piece of historical fiction about a rare book expert who's analyzing the Sarajevo Haggadah. She finds a hair, a stain, an imprint of clasps, and other assorted things in the Haggadah, and the novel then jumps back and forth between the present, where she's speculating what caused the items to be present or lacking, and then the past centuries, where you have an entire chapter on how each of those things got there. It's all interspersed with a love story, so it's really quite interesting. Not heavy, but a fun read. It's a whole new genre of "book mystery," but with enough rare book jargon that you can tell the author did her homework. I highly recommend it. Read and tell me what you think.

4 comments:

Sheryl said...

I'm checking it out now - I'm a little worried though - the pile of books next to my bed is already threatening to topple!

Michal said...

Ahh, but that's the best kind of chaos!

Sheryl said...

just finished it and really enjoyed it. I also saw this article about the real people who saved the Haggadah (and each other)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/03/071203fa_fact_brooks
I wish i could read the whole thing!

Michal said...

I'm so glad you liked it!

And WOW - that article brought tears to my eyes. What a beautiful story, full circle. And now I'm even more impressed with Ms. Brooks - her fictional story was right on.