GERALDINE BROOKS, author of The People of the Book, is interviewed in the Detroit Free Press about the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah:

14th-Century manuscript survives under incredible circumstances

February 3, 2008

By CONNIE OGLE

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Novelist Geraldine Brooks cannot forget her first glimpse of the Sarajevo Haggadah.

The book -- a 14th-Century, illustrated Hebrew manuscript that miraculously survived religious purges, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust and the Bosnian War -- is housed at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It "comes into the room, and they put it on the table," Brooks recalls. 'It's very small, maybe 12-by-6; maybe not even that big. It's a ratty-looking thing. You wouldn't look twice at it. The cover is old and worn out and discolored ... and you think, 'The fuss is about this?' And then you open it, and boom! There's just this explosion of color and richness and imagination."

The mysterious history of the ancient codex, with its traditional text of the Passover Haggadah and gorgeously vivid illustrations of key scenes from the Bible, fired a Big Bang of creativity in Brooks. She turned her interest in the manuscript's fascinating past into "People of the Book" (Viking, $25.95), in which she reimagines the Haggadah's hazardous, centuries-long journey from Seville, Spain, to modern-day Bosnia.

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Also, there's another review of the novel in the Eagle Tribune (MA). Excerpt:

People of the Book" starts out slow; so slow, that I wasn't sure I could make it through almost 400 pages. There's a lot of setup to make the story work, and not much happens for the first couple segments. In the end, I was glad I stuck it out.

With time-framing reminiscent of "Pulp Fiction," some factual history, the existence of a real book and a fictional character who is increasingly easy to like, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Brooks takes you on a five-century trip from Bosnia to Venice, Vienna to Spain, and inside mosques, churches and torture chambers.

If you like historical mysteries, antique-hunting or "The DaVinci Code," pick up "People of the Book." This book about a book is a double delight for anyone who craves the written word.