The Sarajevo Haggadah, a ceremonial book used at Passover, was created in Moorish Spain in 14th century Barcelona. The Haggadah then found its way to Italy, and finally to Sarajevo. Along the way, the book faced numerous close calls, including the book burnings of the Inquisition and the Nazi Party. The book was protected though, and passed along by an unlikely cast of characters, people struck by the beauty and meaning of the book.
However, the Bosnian War in the early 1990s brought the treasured manuscript to the brink of destruction yet again. The Haggadah had rested in National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina for almost a century, but the shelling of the city posed a new threat to its safety. In the destruction and chaos of the shelling, the book was spirited away to safety by the efforts of a few dedicated bibliophiles once again.
Geraldine Brooks was in Sarajevo as a war correspondent during the shelling of Sarajevo, stationed in a hotel that underwent frequent attacks. Australian by birth, she spoke of the experience of reading her first book in the sort of visceral terms most often reserved for those most intimate of relations. "It is the experience of the first book that utterly transports you," she said.
Last night, Brooks shared her experiences in Sarajevo and her contact with the Haggadah that ultimately led to the formation of her most recent novel, People of the Book. The book presents a fictionalized account of the Sarajevo Haggadah.
Brooks spoke of the importance of books in her childhood and adolescence. "The library loomed very large in my family. My parents went each and every Saturday without fail," she said.
Once, when worried that the cost of a collection of books she wanted would be prohibitive for her family, she said she discovered something significant. "I learned that books were a special class of things, like food, that you somehow found money for," she said.
She said that these early experiences were formative in cultivating her passion for writing, as well as her passion for the history and lore of the books themselves.
Created during a time of peace, tolerance, and intellectual exchange in Spain, the book of the Haggadah is itself a testament to something enduring and human, she said. Its labyrinthine and perilous history has a mysterious beauty of its own.
In her book, Brooks tried to bring some fragments of this history to life. "I didn't know how I was going to tie together the stories I wanted to tell," Brooks said. The book is filled with beautiful illuminations, rare in Judaic texts from the time period, and Brooks said that she wanted to explore some of the figures and scenes depicted.
She said that she struggled with the presumptions involved in inserting herself into a time period, 14th century Spain, so different from her own. "It does take quite a bit of chutzpah to do that," she said. Her love for the subject, however, drove her to look more deeply at her motivations for writing this book.
"I don't think that the human heart is anything but the human heart as circumstances change, as we move together through time," she said.
Today, the Haggadah is once again in Sarajevo, a city whose people have long held the book and its history dear to their heart. A long restoration process has repaired some of the damage that the centuries have piled on the fragile pages. The book is still a beauty to behold, Brooks said.
Asked of the effect that the war had on Sarajevo, Brooks said that much of the structural damage to the buildings has been repaired, but she senses that there are deeper wounds that will take longer to heal.
"Whether the city's soul will ever recover is another question," she said. "The parks are all cemeteries because there was nowhere else to bury the dead."
But for Brooks, the lover of stories, the meaning of the Sarajevo Haggadah is powerful. "I'm part of the tradition that believes that what unites us as human beings will always be bigger than what divides us," she said.
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