In 1992 during the Serbian siege of Bosnia, the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest, most beautiful, and most valuable illuminated manuscripts, disappeared. When it turns up in 1996 (heroically saved from the shelling by a librarian), rare book conservator Hanna Heath is given the job of a lifetime: conserving the book under the watch of museum security guards, Bosnian police, and U.N. peacekeepers. Little does anyone know that the Haggadah has been saved countless times before since its creation in fourteenth-century Spain. An insect’s wing, missing clasps, wine stains, saltwater, and a white hair; these are the clues her scientific analysis yields to the book’s difficult survival throughout the centuries.
I’d been considering reading this book since I read the inside cover at the bookstore several months ago. The missing documents, stolen art work, and forged masterpiece premise (think Dan Brown) was of course very appealing to me upon first glance. But thankfully this book was much more than that. Based on the real Sarajevo Haggadah and its history, to say that Brooks has done her research would be an understatement (read the afterward!).
That said, it did have a few flaws. I loved reading about Muslims, Catholics, and Jews alike protecting the book from such enemies as the Nazis, the Inquisition, and general anti-Semitism, but I just didn’t care as much for the modern day story. Hanna – an insensitive, academic loner – is not easy to like. Her turbulent private life – especially her hateful relationship with her mother – is at times unbearable and not necessary to the story. And it would have been a better reading experience if she would have included some description of Jewish customs and/or a Hebrew-English dictionary. But the historical chapters more than made up for these complaints – they were captivating. I felt like a detective, historian, and book conservator all in one, witnessing history through the Haggadah’s journey. This is historical fiction at its best.
