People of the Book
I just have to put in a quick plug for this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it highly.
The Sarajevo Haggadah is a medieval illuminated Hebrew manuscript believed to have been created in Spain in the mid-1300s. It has survived, remarkably, the exile of the Jews from Spain, the Inquisition, book burnings, two world wars, and the war in Bosnia. Over the centuries it has been spared or rescued time and again: in 1942 it was spirited to safety when a feared Nazi general came to the Sarajevo museum to confiscate it; during the Bosnian war it was rescued by a librarian as shells exploded around the museum.
Using the known facts about the Haggadah as a framework, Brooks expertly weaves a fictional account of the book's creation, its journey from Spain to Venice, and eventually to Bosnia, and the people whose hands it passes through along the way. It's fascinating and very well done.
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