A pervasive cultural belief posits that in the good old days people were kind, peaceful, and in every way morally superior to their present-day descendants. This conceit is dashed to its death in Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author Geraldine Brook’s latest novel, “The Secret Chord,” in which she reimagines the life of David, slayer of Goliath and uniter of the tribes of Israel. Ms. Brooks convincingly establishes that in Biblical time warring factions, political maneuvering and personal jealousies spilled quickly into blood vendettas, and worse.Geraldine Brooks is also the author of People of the Book, a fictional account of the history and modern rescue of the Sarajevo Haggadah. I note many reviews between 2007 and 2009, for example, here, here, and here.
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Plus, related: ‘Sarajevo Haggadah’ brings Jewish manuscript to life (CARLO WOLFF, Cleveland Jewish News).
The accordionist Merima Kljuco, with pianist Seth Knopp her brother in musical arms, brought a storied Jewish manuscript to unusual life Oct. 28, filling nearly 700 seats in the Cleveland Museum of Arts’ Gartner Auditorium.
Introduced by the Australian journalist-novelist Geraldine Brooks, Kljuco delivered “The Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book,” her multimedia meditation on a Spanish manuscript that has traveled far and survived even farther.
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