Geraldine Brooks
Brief synopsis
This is the story of discoveries made by a young Australian woman while restoring an ancient Hebrew book, The Sarajevo Haggadah.
Our discussion
Only one person out of our group of 11 found the book an easy read. Others found the nature of the book to be fragmented and that it jumps around a bit too much. We found that the passages describing the past journey and the people who saved the book were the more enjoyable and illuminating as they were well researched.
A few found the "Australian" voice of Hanna to be annoying and not a true representation of Australians today. Many felt the book's ending was also disappointing.
Some interesting facts emerged during our discussion about the author : Geraldine is a converted Jew herself and that she is paying for the education of a Muslim doctor.
In conclusion, this book juxtaposes the stories of hope and tolerance against the sometimes violent events that happened in history but as a novel, falls short of its promise. It was suggested that her book "Year of Wonders" was much more successful.
Our next book is "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
We have given People of the Book a rating of 7 out of 10
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