People of the Book

People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks

A novel from the author of ‘March’ and ‘Year of Wonders’ takes place in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, as a young book conservator arrives in Sarajevo to restore a lost treasure.When Hannah Heath gets a call in the middle of the night in her Sydney home about a precious medieval manuscript which has been recovered from the smouldering ruins of wartorn Sarajevo, she knows she is on the brink of the experience of a lifetime. A renowned book conservator, she must now make her way to Bosnia to start work on restoring The Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book – to discover its secrets and piece together the story of its miraculous survival. But the trip will also set in motion a series of events that threaten to rock Hannah’s orderly life, including her encounter with Ozren Karamen, the young librarian who risked his life to save the book.As meticulously researched as all of Brooks’s previous work, ‘People of the Book’ is a gripping and moving novel about war, art, love and survival.

People of the Book

Geraldine Brooks

London, New York, Toronto, Sydney and New Delhi

Dedication (#ulink_7f6918a6-1c47-540c-81d4-27412fdc0ffd)

For the librarians

Epigraph (#ulink_2ac79b63-02e0-58db-997a-a899ad6242de)

There, where one burns books, one in the end burns men.

– Heinrich Heine

Table of Contents

Title Page (#uac31ec6a-a31e-5d3e-9d97-831ccb38cf95)

Dedication (#u1907fe25-fa82-59b9-bf00-38cf3b2aefe2)

Epigraph

Maps (#u763c592a-9a6d-5701-a530-d8dc022d8483)

Hanna Sarajevo, Spring 1996 (#ud94f62c9-34f7-54ff-89e8-349705b0c1a0)

An Insect’s Wing Sarajevo, 1940 (#ucb049d8e-0118-5cbd-936e-16728aa5d08a)

Hanna Vienna, Spring 1996 (#litres_trial_promo)

Feathers and a Rose Vienna, 1894 (#litres_trial_promo)

Hanna Vienna, Spring 1996 (#litres_trial_promo)

Wine Stains Venice, 1609 (#litres_trial_promo)

Hanna Boston, Spring 1996 (#litres_trial_promo)

Saltwater Tarragona, 1492 (#litres_trial_promo)

Hanna London, Spring 1996 (#litres_trial_promo)

A White Hair Seville, 1480 (#litres_trial_promo)

Hanna Sarajevo, Spring 1996 (#litres_trial_promo)

Lola Jerusalem, 2002 (#litres_trial_promo)

Hanna Arnhem Land, Gunumeleng, 2002 (#litres_trial_promo)

Afterword (#litres_trial_promo)

P.S. (#litres_trial_promo)

About the author (#litres_trial_promo)

Nothing to Prove: (#litres_trial_promo)

LIFE at a Glance (#litres_trial_promo)

Top Ten Favourite Books (#litres_trial_promo)

About the book (#litres_trial_promo)

Uninvited Guests (#litres_trial_promo)

Read on (#litres_trial_promo)

Have You Read? (#litres_trial_promo)

If You Liked This, You Might Like… (#litres_trial_promo)

Find Out More (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Praise (#litres_trial_promo)

By the same Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Maps (#ulink_6d71da49-9869-50a9-8e4b-e5113d8350ef)

Hanna Sarajevo, Spring 1996 (#ulink_5c5beff3-3779-55df-8794-02ec6dd3e263)

I

I MIGHT AS WELL SAY, right from the jump: it wasn’t my usual kind of job.

I like to work alone, in my own clean, silent, well-lit laboratory, where the climate is controlled and everything I need is right at hand. It’s true that I have developed a reputation as someone who can work effectively out of the lab, when I have to, when the museums don’t want to pay the travel insurance on a piece, or when private collectors don’t want anyone to know exactly what it is that they own. It’s also true that I’ve flown halfway around the world, to do an interesting job. But never to a place like this: the boardroom of a bank in the middle of a city where they just stopped shooting at each other five minutes ago.