This was the story of Hanna, a book conservator, who in 1996 is called to war torn Sarajevo to restore the Sarajevo Haggadah, a 500 year old Jewish prayer book. She finds interesting historical artifacts while doing her restoration - a white hair, a red wine stain, etc. - which lead to intertwining chapters going back in time telling the story of the book and how those artifacts ended up in the book. Those chapters also take us back to WWII, the Inquisition, and back to 1480 when the original illustrations for the book were created by a Muslim woman in Spain. There is a LOT of religious history in this book and the relationships throughout history between Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. Lots of religious persecution throughout history but also times when the three religions co-existed peacefully (before another religious war would break out). I thought the history was interesting and the short fictional stories about the people in those different time periods and how they connected to the Haggadah was also interesting. I also learned a lot in the chapters about Hanna about book conservation that was very interesting. And in her story there is also the relationship with her mother and different museums and librarians and other conservators. This was a good book and I only give it four stars because the historical chapters were slower reading for me because they were a little dense.
