Pieces of a Puzzle Part 1.

One good book leads to another - or so it has been for me, lately. Here is the first one on my list, with more to follow:

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
Two things fascinated me about this book, before reading it. I loved the title from the moment I saw it, not sure exactly who these people were or what was meant by "the Book". It turns out that the book in question is the Sarajevo Haggadah. This is the second thing about the book that captivated me. I wanted to know more about this book! The description on page 8 of People of the Book was all I needed to be captivated by curiosity:

The Sarajevo Haggadah, created in medieval Spain, was a famous rarity, a lavishly illuminated Hebrew manuscript made at a time when Jewish belief was firmly against illustrations of any kind. It was thought that the commandment in Exodus "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or likeness of any thing" had suppressed figurative art by medieval Jews. When the book came to light in Sarajevo in 1894, its pages of painted miniatures had turned this idea on its head and caused art history texts to be rewritten.

So the mere existence of the book in question is point of fascination to me. But there is more: the book was created in medieval Spain (when, how, why?). It somehow came to light in Sarajevo at the end of the 19th century (how, why?) - then apparently, during the seige of Sarajevo in 1992, the book was saved from sure destruction during intense shelling, by the Muslim head of the museum library.

The interweaving of the human stories - the People - the Jewish people and those who carried this book from medieval times to now - and the Book, this mysteriously created Hebrew manuscript in the form of a lavishly illuminated book - these are, in my mind, the elements of a story that has great potential. That the book "surfaced" from obscurity in Sarajevo, was nearly destroyed and then rescued and restored to its place as "the symbol of Sarajevo's multiethnic ideal" - by a Muslim man - that is a huge sweep of culture and history that I could not resist. Then, add that the author was in reality a war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Sarajevo, and she was in Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo...I had to know what she would do with this!!

The book was very engaging, despite a few weaknesses, and in my next post, I'll explain how it led me to the next book...then a movie...and the music that revealed the puzzle itself to me.

In the meantime, here is the author's web site for the book and here is a map created especially for the book.