Gift Reads for Chanukah and Beyond

Geraldine Brooks had the unusual opportunity to view the Sarajevo Haggadah, the treasure at the heart of her historical novel, People of the Book (Viking). She had been a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Bosnia and, through some United Nations connections, was able, under heavy guard, to watch a book conservator handle the centuries-old Haggadah.

"This book has been a witness to so much history, so much suffering," says Brooks, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2005 novel, March. She describes the Sarajevo Haggadah, the most renowned illuminated Haggadah manuscript to survive from the Middle Ages, as not much larger than a paperback and poorly rebound, due to an earlier repair project.

"You wouldn't look twice at this in a used bookstore. But once you open it—boom!—you see the vividness of the illustrations after all those years, the sense of the artist's mind and hand. The beauty of the art just carries you away."

Over the centuries, the Haggadah has captured the attention and the care of many individuals, Jews as well as non-Jews, who have stood in awe of it and even risked their lives for its safety. In People of the Book, Brooks imagines what the book's journey might have been, from its creation in 14th-century Spain to present-day Bosnia, focusing on 1480 Seville, 1492 Tarragona, 1609 Venice, 1894 Venice and 1940 Sarajevo.

The novel opens in 1996 Sarajevo, when Hanna Heath, a 30-year-old Australian book conservator, arrives in the city, having been selected for the job of inspecting and repairing the Haggadah. While doing her work, she finds a fine white hair, an insect wing and stains on the pages, and she contacts experts to investigate how these materials might have become affixed to the manuscript—and what they might signify. Each of these clues prompts a historical section of the book, with its own cast of characters—including a Jewish-born priest, an African slave who becomes a manuscript painter, and a young girl who escapes Sarajevo during World War II to fight with the Partisans. The endpaper maps give a sense of the novel's sweep.

"By linking research and imagination, sometimes I can think myself into the heads of the people who made the book. I can figure out who they were, or how they worked. That's how I add my few grains to the sandbox of human knowledge," Hanna writes, in her official report, in which she "wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it."

Brooks, who was born in Australia, admits that she and her character have some similarities, particularly in their dogged pursuit of knowledge. The author did extensive research to enrich the narrative with authenticity, studying book restoration, medieval life, the Inquisition and the time of Convivencia in Spain, when Jews, Muslims and Catholics lived peacefully and productively together.

"We know so little about the circumstances of the making of the book—who was the scribe, who was the illuminator. There's no way to research that on a purely factual basis. It's all just lost to us," Brooks says. "I had to take the little bits of information we had and interpolate the imaginative endeavor."

The novel, like the true story of the Haggadah, conveys a sense of survival and hope and is a testimony to the once-peaceful coexistence of peoples and to the potential of humanity.

Brooks, whose own background is Irish-Catholic, was interested in Judaism as a child, inspired by her father, who served in the Australian armed forces in the Middle East during World War II. She read extensively about Jewish history and, for a while, even wore a Star of David around her neck to her convent school. When she moved to the United States to attend Columbia Journalism School, she fell in love with a classmate, Tony Horwitz, who would also go on to win a Pulitzer. When they decided to marry, Brooks chose to convert to Judaism, and they are now very involved in a Reconstructionist synagogue in their community in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

Inspired by History

Some of the same themes—historical reinvention, books and unusual journeys—inspired these other noteworthy new books.

The novel Scottsboro (W.W. Norton), by Ellen Feldman, is set in Alabama in 1931, blending historical and fictional figures involved in a case that became international news, when nine black youths wereaccused of raping two white women. One of the women later recanted her testimony. Feldman’s compelling and still timely story follows a young reporter who is drawn to the case and tries to save the young men from the electric chair.

A book found in a Manhattan dumpster inspired Lily Koppel’s uncommon biography, The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal (HarperCollins). When Koppel, a reporter for The New York Times, uncovered the discarded diary and read the entries that presented a lovely and lost New York of the 1930s, she set out to find the author. Leading a glamorous and tempestuous life, the diarist was full of passion for New York City, ideas and words. Ultimately, Koppel tracked down the 90-year-old woman, who was stunned and delighted to rediscover her old self. Weaving excerpts from the diary with recollections, Koppel re-creates an era and a vivid personality.

In June 1894, Annie Londonderry set off from Boston, dressed in a long skirt and a high-collared blouse, for a round-the-world trip by bicycle. The trip was inspired by a high-stakes wager between two businessmen, and Annie sought to prove that she could do what no woman had done before. She carried only a change of underwear and a revolver and, along the way, defied Victorian propriety by trading her skirts for bloomers and then a man’s riding suit.

In Around the World on Two Wheels: One Woman, One Bicycle, One Unforgettable Journey (Citadel Press), her great nephew Peter Zheutlin tells her little-known story. Annie Londonderry was actually Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a Jewish immigrant and working mother of three—she changed her name for a more memorable one and didn’t want to call attention to her Jewishness while traveling.

More New Books

Elisa Albert brings a fresh, sharply humorous and decidedly quirky spirit to the stories in How This Night Is Different (Free Press), her acclaimed debut collection of short stories, now available in paperback. No pat answers here. The disaffected young Jews who are her narrators wrestle with ambivalence and frustration in their quest for an authentic connection to their faith and the world at large. Just out is Albert’s first novel, The Book of Dahlia (Free Press). Its smart, twentysomething title character, Dahlia Finger, spends her days aimlessly watching TV and wondering what she’s going to do in life, until she is told that she has cancer and that life isn’t going to last much longer. Dahlia’s diagnosis forces her to take a stark and blackly humorous look at the choices she’s made or avoided.

Also recently out is Becoming Alice (www.alicerene.com), a memoir from Alice Rene, who as a young child fled Austria with her family. Her book paints a compelling picture of the emotional toll that trauma and displacement wreaks on a family, particularly its youngest member who doesn’t understand the events that are taking place around her. Rene ultimately moves beyond her troubled past, going on to receive a Masters degree in social welfare at Berkeley, to marry and raise three children.

Passover Resources

Gift Books

Going to Seder with Bob Dylan and Marlon Brando. Leading a Seder in Leningrad for Soviet Jewish refuseniks who had never attended one before. Attending a Seder with nearly 40 young cousins guzzling "wine" like the grownups and then learning that it was prune juice. These and other delightful and poignant anecdotes and quotes fill Seder Stories—Passover Thoughts on Food, Family and Freedom (Cumberland House Publishing, $14.95). Author Nancy Rips, a long-time bookseller who has hosted first and second night Seders for years, began collecting Passover stories during volunteer visits to residents at an Omaha Senior Center. The latter experience helped inspire this small gem of a book, an ideal host or hostess gift or a fun resource to get friends and family reminiscing while sitting around the holiday table at your own Seder. A portion of the profits from Seder Stories will be contributed to the Kripke Jewish Federation Library in Omaha, Neb.

The Four Questions inspired two books this year, both with an international bent. Why Is This Night Different The Four Questions Around the World by Ilana Kurshan (Schocken, $16) features translations of the famous questions into 23 languages including Greek, Farsi, Indian, French, Danish and Yiddish. Accompanying each translation are mini-histories of Jewish life in the related countries, making this book a wonderful introduction to the many permutations of Diaspora Jewry.

The Four Questions in Klingon? That's only one of the many wonders to be found in 300 Ways to Ask the Four Questions: From Zulu to Abkhaz (Spiegel-Stein, $39.95, www.WhyIsThisNight.com) This amazing book—and accompanying CD and DVD—offers translations of the Four Questions into hundreds of languages including Navaho, Swahili, Tibetan, Gaelic, Serbian, Polish, Manx, Ladino, and Judeo-Iraqi. Facts and photos about the regions and cultures are also featured helping to make this book a fascinating introduction to world culture. Over 700 contributors from around the world helped in the creation of this project, a 25-year labor of love for two friends from New Jersey, Murray Spiegel and Rickey Stein. Background about the Four Questions and suggestions for the book's use are included.

Children's Books

Rhymes and crazy pictures make the story of the 10 plagues a hoot in Let My People Go! by Tilda Balsey with illustrations by Ilene Richard (Kar-Ben, $7.95). Hard-to-entertain pre-schoolers and kindergartners and will especially appreciate this colorful retelling of the familiar story.

A true Civil War story inspired Private Joel and the Sewell Mountain Seder by Bryna J. Fireside, with illustrations by Shawn Costello (Kar-Ben, $16.95, hardcover, $6.95, paperback). Older children, aged 8-11, will enjoy the story of how Private J.A. Joel and his fellow Jewish soldiers improvised the necessary items for Seder, using cider for wine, carrot tops for parsley and a brick to symbolize charoset.

New Food Products

Since many of us host a crowd for Seder, Manischewitz® has introduced Family Size Matzo Ball Mix. This new product, which comes packaged in a resealable canister avoids the need to purchase multiple small boxes of matzo ball mix. The mix contains no MSG and sells for $3.99.

Also new for Passover and all year round from Manischewitz®, are Whole Grain Matzo Farfel and Matzo Meal, packaged in resealable containers that sell for $2.99 each, and Italian Herb Coating Crumbs ($1.79) that come in a convenient shaker and are perfect for coating fish, chicken and vegetables.

In commemoration of the company's 120th anniversary, Manischewitz® is offering a limited edition matzo tin packed with a pound of matzo that sells for $4.99. Only 4,500 are available.