People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

The handwriting was awful, but there was a signature. To have a name, it's what you pray for. A name is like the beginning of the ball of thread that'll lead you through the labyrinth. 

A conservationist uncovers the tale of an ancient manuscript along with her own history, says. The narrative, inspired by the Sarajevo Haggadah, talks about identity and invisibility, what motivates us to sometimes do the unthinkable, how we justify the unjustifiable to ourselves, and the risks we are occasionally inspired to take for each other. The book is full of images about how complex relationships can be. 'Serif, the most learned person she had ever met, was also the only person never let her feel the least bit stupid.' The Catholic censor of the Inquisition was once a Jew. A pregnant doctor allows her artist lover to die under her watch so that he doesn't wake up blind after surgery... much to the fury of her daughter, the conservationist, when she learns of what happened as an adult.