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Preview
  • People of the Book

  • A Novel
  • By: Geraldine Brooks
  • Narrated by: Edwina Wren
  • Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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People of the Book

By: Geraldine Brooks
Narrated by: Edwina Wren
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Summary

DUBLIN Literary Award winner

Short-listed, Harold U. Ribalow Prize

Indies Choice Book Award nominee

Library of Vermont Literary Award Finalist

Mary Shelly Award winner

Winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated prayer book through centuries of war, destruction, theft, loss, and love.

Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called "a tour de force"by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain.

When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

©2008 Geraldine Brooks (P)2008 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

“There’s romance between Brooks and the world, and her writing is as full of heart and curiosity as it is intelligence and judgement.”The Boston Globe

“Intelligent, thoughtful, gracefully written, and original . . . Brooks tells a believable and engaging story.”The Washington Post

“Intense, gripping . . . People of the Book, like her Pulitzer Prize-winning previous novel March, is a tour de force that delivers a reverberating lesson gleaned from history. . . . It’s a brilliant, innately suspenseful structure, and one that allows Brooks to show off her remarkable aptitude for assimilating research and conveying a wide range of settings. Also on full display is her keen sense of dramatic pacing.”San Francisco Chronicle

What listeners say about People of the Book

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Fascinating

I loved this story from the first word to the last. It was very compelling and quite beautifully written. I’d never heard of the Sarajevo Haggadah so I also learned a lot. My only criticism is of some of the strange voices and accents in the narration which were jarring at times eg the Israeli accent was awful as were some of the Spanish women’s screechy tones

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exceptional

compelling, good mixture of history and speculation, great characters, will listen again as I got a bit lost with who is who at times! I could enjoy a sequal exploring more of what was found at the end!

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