Geraldine Brooks writes rich old stories, taking her readers far beyond historical circumstances into her characters’ complicated relationships and innermost thoughts. “People of the Book” traces the lives of individuals – no, of whole families – who at some time had a certain prayer book in their possession.

That book is the Sarajevo haggadah, an actual, centuries-old volume that has been smuggled, stolen, bought, hidden, and protected by Jews and Gentiles. The things they inadvertently left behind – a butterfly wing, salt and wine stains, a hair – are analyzed by modern-day scholars to determine where the book has traveled over the centuries. But as each minute discovery is made, readers are taken back to the time and place of the “accident” that caused each imperfection.

Brooks weaves the old stories into the fabric of a new story, the story of the woman who is seeking to know the past while living very much in the present. Old and new, love and loss, are universal experiences across time and place. The conflicts are deeply personal, sometimes disturbing. After all, no scars are made during times of ease and peace. This is a story of survival. Survival of the haggadah, survival of family lines, but also a story of separation and death.

“People of the Book” is a beautiful novel, worth taking time to savor.

Katharine Richardson works at the Covington Library.