Matti Friedman

The Aleppo Codex: The True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the International Pursuit of an Ancient Bible (2012)

Masterful evocation of a time (1947, Syria), with its desperate escapes by night, for both a people and a parchment. Shades of Le Carré in Friedman's probing of the distant memories of ageing players, in his intimate depiction of a scattered community, and in his discovery of a web of obfuscation...