Book Review: The Thirty-Fifth Page

Reviewed by Shelby Zwintscher

Real history is imbued with a peculiar magic in this captivating novel set in the early days of the Bosnian war.

Miri Adler’s dear, late grandfather taught her to love the finest details of stories, a passion that led her to become a conservationist researcher. When Miri is invited to study the Sarajevo Haggadah, an ancient relic glimmering with magic, in Bosnia, it’s an offer she cannot refuse, despite all the risks. She already lost everything with her grandfather’s passing. But is the Haggadah a blessing, an omen, or a curse?

Where some see an old book, Miri sees inks meticulously mixed by hands long dead and stains and markings that expose the stories of the people who helped the Haggadah withstand the tests of time.

The Thirty-Fifth Page begins with Miri being forced to move from her comfortable accommodation to a hotel swarmed with journalists, including a stranger with an unsettling air about him, Malcolm, and a photojournalist named Jennifer who was assigned as her roommate.

As the world around her frays, Miri cannot flee. Instead, she focuses on her research of the Haggadah, its unusual patterns and the way the ink appears to breathe, as if infused with life. However, Miri isn’t the only one with an interest in the peculiarities of the Haggadah. Jennifer has warned Miri to steer clear of Malcolm, who has taken an interest in Miri’s studies.

As war becomes unavoidable in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1992, Miri comes across a strange little girl beside sniper victims outside of her hotel. The child clings to Miri as if she knows her, but she does not speak and reveals no information about herself. Miri is urged to turn her over to the police, but she feels a surge of protectiveness over the child.

Then Miri’s world is turned upside down when the museum is bombed and she is asked by her boss to smuggle the Haggadah away from the chaos. With the young girl in tow, Miri makes an effort to flee, but she is thwarted by the war and by Malcolm. Along the way, Miri comes across a deserting soldier who was meant to take them captive but seems like he wants to help her and the young girl. The Thirty-Fifth Page follows the trio as they figure out what to do next, eventually jumping ahead to 2015, in a post-war world.

“She had always thought of history as something you studied. Like pigment under a microscope: analyzed, labeled, safely contained. A thing that ended. But here, in this car, it was still unfolding. Not past, but present. What unsettled her most was the repetition— the way violence moved through time like an heirloom, passed from hand to hand. Each generation inheriting not just sorrow, but a story. Who to hate. Who to blame. Scripts rehearsed so long they no longer needed remembering.”

The Thirty-Fifth Page expertly depicts the early days of the Bosnian War. Author Lyn Badgley provides readers with enough context to understand the nuances of the time, and there is obvious care and consideration as it pertains to the history, culture, and setting.

With effortless prose, Badgley immerses the reader into the intermingling cultures within the country. Folkloric and mystical magic are sprinkled across the story in a way that enhances and doesn’t detract from the more serious depictions of wartime violence, hatred, and the effects of trauma.

The pacing is slow, but it works in favor of the story—the tone ranging from curious to emotional to disturbing. It makes sense within the wartime of part one but also within the tranquility, despite the tensions of the plot, of the setting in part two. And tensions do rise again, keeping the reader engaged for the conclusion within part two.

The Thirty-Fifth Page is for readers who love slow-burn magical realism embedded within real history. A love letter to stories, this moving novel is as much about community in tragedy as it is about mysterious magic in the mundane.

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