I might as well, say, right from the jump: it wasn’t my usual kind of job.
-- Hanna (Hanna: Sarajevo, Spring 1996, I)

Importance: When the novel begins, Hanna immediately explains to the reader that the job she has accepted – to conserve and analyze the Sarajevo Haggadah, is not her usual job. This is not merely because the job itself is so different – in a different place and under different circumstances (such as armed guards being present). It is also because, in a measure of foreshadowing, the job Hanna undertakes will not merely be about preservation, but understanding the people and the times which the Sarajevo Haggadah has seen.

By linking research and imagination, sometimes I can think myself into the heads of the people who made the book. I can figure out who they were, or how they worked. That’s how I add my few grains to the sandbox of human knowledge. It’s what...
-- Hanna (Hanna: Sarajevo, Spring 1996, I)