Great fun. The “story about an object, told in flashbacks” format is very “The Red Violin” (not a bad thing), and Brooks does a very good job of developing her supporting characters in the “vignettes from the past”. The descriptions of the haggadah and its construction hooked me from the start. As always, Brooks’ prose flows well – very enjoyable to read.

I love the double meaning of the book’s title – it’s not a big deal, but did add a nice extra frisson while reading.

My one complaint is that I didn’t find Hannah to be as well developed as some of the other characters – I didn’t relate to her as well as I could’ve. Still, for all the she’s the main human character, I didn’t find that this deficiency detracted markedly from the book.