Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
People of the Book cover art

People of the Book

By: Geraldine Brooks
Narrated by: Edwina Wren
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

March cover art
Song of a Captive Bird cover art
The Covenant of Water cover art
Bel Canto cover art
A Tale of Two Cities cover art
The Sisterhood cover art
The Girl Who Wrote in Silk cover art
The Scribe of Siena cover art
Anna Karenina cover art
For Whom the Bell Tolls cover art
The Glassblower of Murano cover art
War and Peace cover art
Tremontaine, Season One cover art

Summary

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war.

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding-an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair-she begins to unlock the book's mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book's journey from its salvation back to its creation.

In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city's rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah's extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna's investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.

Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author.

©2008 Geraldine Brooks (P)2008 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"Brooks is too good a novelist to belabor her political messages, but her depiction of the Haggadah bringing together Jews, Christians and Muslims could not be more timely. Her gift for storytelling, happily, is timeless." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about People of the Book

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    44
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    21
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    37
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

enthralling, a wonderful story

I normally choose thrillers by writers such as Lee Child, Thomas Perry etc but I was intrigued by the story of this novel so decided to try it out. I loved it, thought the author's way of telling the story with flashbacks linked to particular discoveries made by her book conservator character was really good. She made me feel I was there with her characters, living through some harrowing experiences which made me both uncomfortable for the tormented and angry at the tormentors and reminded me how hateful humans can be to those of different races or beliefs. The narrator was good overall, easy to listen to although some of the accents she gave certain characters were slightly irritating. People of the Book was a change of style for me and one that I am very glad I chose to listen to. It was a detective story about the origins of and journeys undertaken by this Jewish book and I was fascinated by the afterword which related how Geraldine Brooks came to write this story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, based on fact and how much help she had from all sorts of experts. Riveting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating.

I loved this book, it was a fantastic listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • J
  • 25-05-10

Enjoyable and worthwhile listen.

I loved the mixture of fact and fiction with the time slips to show the possible journey of the book, linking the findings of the restorer to events in the books history. This book made me aware of the struggles of people when they are diplaced from their homeland. On occasions the accents grated but not enough to stop me listening.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Inspiring story

I really liked the intertwined stories. The intermittently shrill voice and absurd accented of the reader were somehow distracting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • PT
  • 17-06-16

Terrific story beautifully narrated.

If you want a book to charm, enthral and touch you emotionally then The People Of The Book is a must to listen to. The narration by Edwina Wren is so sensitive that she made me cry in several places and the story, at times harrowing but always riveting, is one that will stay with me and keep me thinking for a long time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful mix of fact and fiction

The people of the book are people I wish I could get to know better. They are strong willed, intelligent, special and human. This book touches on the lives of those who touched and made The Book and kept it alive. They are above all people, not Jews or Catholics or Muslims, but people. Just so with this book, which is above all a celebration of Art and the human will to preserve and create Art. A hair, a butterly wing, a stain form proof of all those stories locked in those ancient pages. I loved listening to this artful celebration of art!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

stunning

the author shows that moments in the lives of people that truly make a difference in the most evil historical times. I couldn't stop listening. it's so well researched, the author tells the stories of people not the facts of history. I'm ranting now but honestly, this is wonderful. it gets better as you dive in but it's a page turner, not a chore.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

An fantastic story about a book’s journey through historical time and geographical space. Well read, too, but WHY the silly, annoying accents of non-English speakers who speak in their own language??? Very distracting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An extraordinary story!

A wonderful story, and for this expatriate Aussie, brilliantly narrated - home thoughts from abroad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great driving listening

The narrator is magical, wonderful pace and voices. Brilliant story and fascinating true background story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!