People of the book (Geraldine Brooks)

Geraldine Brooks People of the book. 2008.

Harper Collins Australia.

My comments
Hanna's discovery of various 'clues' when she first examines the haggadah initiates a series of historically-based vignettes through which the people of 'the book' become the people of this book.
Butterfly wing Ch. 2 (p47) An insect's wing. Sarajevo, 1940 (Lola and the
partisans)
The silver clasps Ch. 4 (p111) Feathers and a rose. Vienna, 1894 (Dr. Hirshfeldt
and his syphilis patient Mittl)
The wine stain Ch. 6 (p153) Wine stains. Venice, 1609. (Vistorini)
'Revisito per me'. Ditto
The salt Ch 8 (p225) Salwater. Tarragona, 1492. (Inquisition, Jews'
flight from Spain.)
A white hair Ch 10 (p285) A white hair. Seville, 1480. (The female botanical
illustrator.) and …
Ch 13 (p353) Hanna. Arnhem Land, Gunumeleng, 2002.
As Hanna acts on these clues and their hidden stories, she adds more 'people of the book' to its history - notably herself, Ozren Karaman, Werner Heinrich.

The book presents history as incremental and the 'growth' of human knowledge as incremental. The book's structure also implies this: an accumulation of episodes and evidence through an 'accumulation' of chapters.
BUT
History isn't always incremental; more often it skips and jumps through the sorts of wars and revolutions that are this book's subject matter.

1. Wikipedia entry for Geraldine Brooks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Brooks

2. Wikipedia entry for 'People of the Book' (i.e. the background to the title of
Brooks's book): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_Book

2. Geraldine Brooks's web site:
http://www.geraldinebrooks.com/

3. Home page for People of the book:
www.harpercollins.com.au/books/9780732280376/People_Of_The_Book/index.aspx
Includes Geraldine Brooks's biography and a link to her web site.

4. People of the book was featured in the April 2008 edition of 'First Tuesday
Book Club' (ABCTV). See the program's web site:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/
(Click on 'Discussion Board', then 'Featured Books', then 'People of the book -
Geraldine Brooks' - about 5 down on the list.)

5. Geraldine Brooks appeared on 'Enough Rope' (ABCTV) on 18 April 2005. For
a transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1348380.htm

6. Books by Geraldine Brooks
1994 Nine Parts of Desire: the hidden world of Islamic women. (Doubleday) Based on her experiences as
a foreign correspondent among Muslim women of the Middle East.
1997 Foreign Correspondence: a pen pal's journey from down under to all over. (Doubleday) A memoir
and travel adventure about her quest to find her childhood pen pals.
2001 Year of Wonders. (Viking) Her first novel. Set in 1666 England, it follows a young woman's attempts
to save her village from the plague.
2005 March. (Viking) Her second novel. Set in the American Civil War, it retells Louisa May Alcott's novel
Little Women from the point of view of Alcott's protagonists' absent father.
2008 People of the Book. (Viking, Fourth Estate, Harper Collins)

7. Geraldine Brooks's publishers
Doubleday. Owned by Random House (itself owned by German multinational Bertelsmann AG), it has 9
imprints, based in the USA.
Viking. Owned by the Penguin group.
Harper Collins. Owned by News Corporation, it has over 30 imprints, most based in the USA.
Fourth Estate. A Harper Collins imprint.