萨拉热窝 ● 哈加达

Title: People of the Book
Author: Brooks, Geraldine (1955- )
New York : Viking, 2008
372 p. : 24 cm (Hardcover)
Read by: 02/10/2011, Borrowed from the WBPL
Genre: Fiction

Very attractive stories, and smartly written – this is a book of short story collection woven by the line of the fictitious history of the book Sarajevo Haggadah (I googled quite a lot on the subject after the reading). I enjoyed the account of medieval history and the Jewish culture, but absolutely dislike the twisted relationship between Hanna and her mother, it was so unreal and failed to justify in the end. Hanna’s romantic relationship with Ozren was disposable too. In brief, the separate stories were successful but the line connecting them was not. I also hated how Hanna manipulated and received free lab work throughout, and the way they overrode and cheated the security system in a national museum. It was very disrespectful of her proud career. Most of all, I was disgusted by the unnecessary smuggle and therefore risk of a treasure. That’s the author’s failure. Hanna was not a deep character, I couldn’t see either how she was connected, as the book claimed, with the people involving in the book history. Could it be because the author is a journalist by living who is better with stories rather than with people? Anyway, great imagination, eloquent writing, educational information, and thin characters.

The author's another book March is not my taste either.

By the way, “People of the Book” is a term used by Muslin to refer to Jews and Christians.