My aunt and uncle, who are famous (in our family, at least) for having impeccable taste in books, gave me The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. It's the (imagined) story of the (real) "Sarajevo Haggadah" -- an illuminated manuscript from the mid-1300s that tells the Passover story -- the book's journey across Europe, and its improbable survival through the Holocaust, the war in Sarajevo, the Spanish Inquisition, and so on.
I loved the book, the characters, the narrative. I love books about books. I love books about people who love books. I love reading about Jewry through history. I've read several other of Brooks' books (Year of Wonders - about the plague; March - the story of the dad from Little Women, and his war experience). Always, I'm a little wary of the premise of her novels, thinking maybe the book is going to be a little cute or a little forced, and instead, she always delights. Smart, interesting, gripping books.
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