THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

“People of the Book”, a novel of historical fiction, is based on the true story of the Sarajevo Haggadah.  The Haggadah is the story of Passover, and the etymology of the word Haggadah stems from “tell”, as commanding to tell the story.

 

Sarajevo 1996:  Hannah Heath, a rare book expert receives a call from an Israeli colleague, Amitai Yomtov, informing her, the codex, the Sarajevo Haggadah has been located.  Hannah travels from Australia to war torn Sarajevo to inspect the prized, historic scroll.  Hannah meets, the museum librarian, and rescuer of the Haggadah.  Hannah examines the Haggadah for authenticity and begins the detailed process of conserving the ancient artifact.  Hannah travels to Vienna to meet an entomologist with hopes to identify an insect wing taken from the scroll, thus tracing the artifact’s travel.   The entomologist tells her the book has been in the Alps.

 

Sarajevo 1940:  The German’s invade Sarajevo; the Jews are rounded up by the Nazis and the Ustashe.  The Muslim museum curator saves the Haggadah from the Nazis and secures the book in a mosque, in the mountains.

Hannah travels across Europe investigating the Haggadah.  Hannah researches the binding and clasps, the colors of paint and artwork, as well as revealing finds on the parchment of wine and salt.  Each discovery leads Hannah closer to learning the history of the Haggadah.

 

Note:

The Sarajevo Haggadah made its way from Spain in the 1490’s surfacing in Venice in 1609, where the Haggadah survived the Church burnings.  The artifact surfaced again Sarajevo and in 1894 was sold to the museum.  In 1941 the Curator at the museum saved the scroll from the Nazis and the Ustache.  The Haggadah was saved again by the museum officials during the Serb Bosnian war.  The Haggadah still lies in the Sarajevo Museum caught in the politics of the day as the museum closed in 2012.

Israel rescued and gave sanctuary to Bosnian Muslims during the 1990’s Bosnian-Serb conflict.