Audio Book Description:
In 1996, a rare book expert is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation ofa mysterious, beautifully illuminated Hebrewmanuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain and recently saved from destruction during the shelling of Sarajevo`s libraries. When Hanna Heath,a caustic Aussie loner with a passion for her work, discoversa series of tiny artifacts in the book`s ancient binding-an insect-wing fragment, winestains, salt crystals, a white hair-she begins to unlock the mysteries of the book`s eventful past and to uncoverthe dramatic stories ofthose who created it and those who risked everything to protect it. In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect if from theNazis. In the hedonistic salonsof fin-de-siecle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city`s rising anti-Semitism. In Venicein 1609, a Catholic priest saves the book from the Inquisition`s fires. In Tarragona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees is family destroyed bythe agonies of forced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the manuscript`s extraordinary illuminationsis finally disclosed. Hanna`sinvestigations unexpectedly plunge her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultranationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief inherself and in the man she has come to love.
