Maybe because I’d recently visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC, I was totally ready for this book set around a rare Jewish book – the Sarajevo Haggadah.
The novel travels space and time. We travel the world as Hanna Heath uncovers the secrets of this ancient text and uncovers some unexplored areas of her own heart.
I love Geraldine Brooks’s other works – March and Year of Wonders – but what charmed me so much with this one was her Australian heroine. She is SO Australian!
Here’s a passage describing how to get hold of cow gut (don’t ask) to prove my point:
Ever since they moved the abattoir out of Homebush and started to spruce the place up for the 2000 Olympics, you have to drive, basically, to woop woop, and then when you finally get there, there’s so much security in place because of the animal libbers you can barely get in the gate
Or try this one:
In Australia only prats flaunt their PhDs.
I just love it. And I love the story. It’s a love story – boy v girl – girl v career – man v God – girl v parent… okay love/hate. A pleasure to read. Easy to read in fact (took me about 6 hours – around 400 pp) but you still feel you learned something.
And Geraldine Brooks is coming to Perth.
