Books: Roots

(2 of 2)

The Book of Abraham, like its cast, is hardly flawless. Famous historical figures too often behave like cutouts in a Michener mini-series: " 'Your dream, young man, is also ours,' said Gutenberg. 'But wood engraving isn't the solution.' " " 'You've changed,' the painter Rembrandt van Rijn told Herschel a few days later. 'Your face is less luminous.' " The novel fulfills its mission when it leaves the famous and concentrates on the lives of the obscure--the uncelebrated and faceless figures who make history happen. Furnished with voices, the long silent tribe of Abraham reiterates the observation made by Playwright Tom Stoppard 20 years ago in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: when neglected characters move to center stage, Hamlet himself is only a walk-on. --By Stefan Kanfer

Computed by TIME from more than 1,000 participating bookstores.