1. With Hanna Heath being the main thread in the book, I found her down-to-earth attitude lightened the mood of an often times dark story. With words and sayings such as; 'Salvo's', 'piss-take', 'libbers' and 'drives me spare'...do we share any of our Aussie neighbours slang?
2. A friend who's also read 'People Of The Book' says she found it quite distasteful at times and thinks the descriptions of the atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people were too graphic. I had to disagree, I thought the author was restrained and her inclusion of these horrible historic events are what made the book believable, informative, emotive and impactful for me. What are your thoughts? Too graphic?
3. Since deciding to come along to the Saturday Book Chats I have re-discovered my love of learning. Many times I found myself enthralled in the history aspect of this book. For example; when reading about a land called 'Ifrqiya' in the 15th century, I wanted to know more so I googled it and discovered it used to be the area comprising of the coastal regions of Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. So this helped me imagine the Jewish migrants setting out from there on their way to Spain. Did you have any 'Google' moments while reading 'People Of The Book'?
4. Early on in the book, Hanna noted that 'the Yuogoslavs were famous as the only migrant group who managed to import their old World grievances' when they arrived in Australia do you think it is possible for migrants to leave their history/bias behind and start a fresh?
5. Hanna’s relationship with her mother, Sarah, was unusual. Can you think of any reason why the author would portray the relationship like that?
6. I noticed that the last historical flashback was told in 1st person whereas the rest were in 3rd person. I wondered why and thought perhaps it maybe because it was the story of the person who created the haggadah. Did anyone else notice and if so, do you think it has any significance?
7. One of the themes I felt came from this book was the theme of persecution - mainly for religion. There is a quote from Hanna's friend Raz that sums it up (page 303): "...you've got a society where people tolerate difference...and everything's humming along...then somehow this fear, this hate, this need to demonize 'the other' - it just sort of rears up and smashes the whole society. Inquisition, Nazis, extremist Serb nationalists...same old, same old. It seems to me the book at this point, bears witness to all that." What was the main theme of the book for you?
8. Do you think Ozren was a believable character?
9. Why do you think Father Vistorini saved the Haggadah?
10. If you were Hanna would you have forgiven Ozren so quickly?
11. Who was/were your favourite character/s and which tale connected with you the most?
12. How do you rate the book from 1 to 5
thanks to all those for contributing to the questions
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